An explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza is reported to have caused 400-500 casualties. Hamas blamed Israel saying it was a targeted attack by a missile. Israel blamed Islamic Jihad. Footage shows several rockets being fired with one 'misfiring' or showing mishap in flight, followed by the explosion on the ground. The location shows no crater but a lot of burned cars, and an audiotape purports to play Hamas agents discussing the misfired rocket.
Assuming the explosion did indeed come from the warhead of the misfired rocket, one wholly irrelevant issue is that the warhead had lots of geography to fall onto but that it happened to fall in that location causing so many fatalities.
Another issue is that the rockets fired from that salvo were purportedly intended for Haifa, or so I heard from one report.
The various responses to this incident demonstrate a lot of troubling behavior. Ugh.
Yep. Looks like the handiwork of the Islamic Jihad Model Rocketry Club. But give it time. The war is still young. And the IDF will surely up the ante!
Journalists do not have the resources and forensic intelligence expertise of the CIA, MI6 etc. Those with the expertise are relying on the "likely" explanation which is not good enough, especially under the circumstances.
@Switchcraft @Robecology One newscast examined the video in detail and it seemed obvious that it was the misfired rocket from Islamic Jihad. I went back a day later to try to find that or a similarly clean video and this was the best I could find:
U.S. Intelligence reported the missile being one that misfired was the "likely" explanation. This quickly became the accepted explanation apparently in most of the world. "likely" is now the accepted level of intelligence for global security threats with the prospect of continental conflict, and at least one nation being a nuclear power.
So they could have accidentally bombed their own facility...?