Dubai, UAE–The New York Times’s Gaza hospital blast investigation does not conclude in any way who is responsible for the deadly explosion at the al-Ahli hospital on October 17.
Nevertheless, they assert that the projectile seen in the Al Jazeera live footage, cited by many as central to the investigation, came from Israel.
But they say that this projectile is not what caused the explosion at the hospital, since it was nowhere near that building.
The video shows a projectile streaking through the darkened skies over Gaza and exploding in the air. Seconds later, another explosion is seen on the ground.
The footage has become a widely cited piece of evidence as Israeli and American officials have made the case that an errant Palestinian rocket malfunctioned in the sky, fell to the ground and caused a deadly explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
But a detailed visual analysis by The New York Times concludes that the video clip — taken from an Al Jazeera television camera livestreaming on the night of Oct. 17 — shows something else.
The projectile seen in the video is most likely not what caused the explosion at the hospital. It actually detonated in the sky roughly two miles away, The Times found, and is an unrelated aspect of the fighting that unfolded over the Israeli-Gaza border that night.
The Times’s finding does not answer what did cause the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital blast, or who is responsible. The contention by Israeli and American intelligence agencies that a failed Palestinian rocket launch is to blame remains plausible.
But the Times analysis does cast doubt on one of the most publicized pieces of evidence that Israeli officials have used to make their case and complicates the straightforward narrative they have put forth.
The hospital blast has become a searing, contested episode in the war that began on Oct. 7, after Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, invaded Israel, killing more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers and seizing 200 hostages who were taken back to Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
Israel has responded with a relentless artillery and bombing campaign that has killed 5,700 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry. The Israeli military is also preparing for a ground invasion.