Israel denies role in Gaza hospital bombing to push genocidal campaign: Analyst

By Ali Ghorban Bagheri

The Israeli regime is carrying out propaganda against the Palestinian resistance groups over the bombing of al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza to exonerate itself of the war crime and to continue its genocidal campaign, says an analyst.

In an interview with the Press TV website, Mohammad Nader Al-Omari, an international affairs analyst and author based in Syria, said all evidence points to the role of the Israeli military in the hospital attack.

He said there is ample evidence that points to the direct role of the Israeli regime in the devastating hospital bombing, which claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians, including children.

Palestinian officials in the besieged Gaza Strip have accused Israel of carrying out the deadly strike, while the regime has attributed it to “rocket misfire” by the Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad has categorically denied the accusation and all available evidence also points to the culpability of the Israeli military that had previously ordered the evacuation of the hospital.

Social media influencers, including Hananya Naftali, who is close to Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, had in the initial hours admitted that the Israeli warplanes carried out the air raid.

Al-Omari, speaking to the Press TV website, said there are “many reasons and proofs” that the Zionist regime committed the crime and is now “trying to exonerate itself and blame the Palestinian groups.”

“The first witnesses were those Palestinians who were present in the hospital area and heard the sound of Israeli planes and saw the scene of bombing with their own eyes,” he stated.

The analyst hastened to add that the Arabic social media page of the Israeli military had minutes after the bombing claimed responsibility for the bombing, claiming that Palestinian fighters were targeted.

However, the official Israeli narrative changed after piles of bodies emerged from the hospital.

In less than half an hour after the devastating bombing, the Israeli regime cabinet pointed to the role of the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad resistance group, Al-Omari said, questioning how the regime reached such a conclusion so quickly.

Factbox: Bombing of Gaza hospital not first time Israel has targeted hospitals

The devastating bombing of a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday night is not the first time the Israeli regime has targeted health facilities. It has for years been bombing hospitals and killing medics.

By accusing Islamic Jihad of carrying out the hospital bombing, the Israeli regime pursues goals such as portraying Palestinian resistance groups as terrorist groups such as Daesh, fomenting differences between the main resistance factions in the Gaza Strip, and continuing the genocidal campaign in the besieged coastal region and evading responsibility for its war crimes, he noted.

Al-Omari said the Israeli occupying regime seeks to “drive the people of Gaza out of the territory” with such indiscriminate aggression, referring to the evacuation orders given to hospitals in Gaza.

He pointed to variance in the statements of Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden at their joint press conference held in Tel Aviv, as the former blamed the Islamic Jihad while the latter blamed Hamas.

“It shows that these claims are baseless and are made in an attempt to escape responsibility and accuse Palestinian resistance groups,” he remarked.

Prior to the explosion, the Israeli regime had ordered 1.1 million Palestinians in the north of Gaza to evacuate to the southern part of the Strip, not even sparing hospitals flooded with patients.

 On Friday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said Israeli forces threatened to also bomb the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza, which has also been providing refuge to hundreds of displaced and wounded.

The World Health Organization (WHO) termed the reports "disturbing," and noted that it is "impossible" to safely evacuate patients from the Gaza hospital.

"Disturbing reports about evacuation order to Al-Quds Hospital. As WHO has repeatedly stressed, it is impossible for these overcrowded hospitals to safely evacuate patients," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

"They must be allowed to perform their lifesaving functions. They must be protected.”

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir