DID ISRAEL BOMB A HOSPITAL IN GAZA, KILLING MORE THAN 500 PEOPLE?

Philip C. Johnson, Ph.D.

October 18, 2023

Yesterday I was contacted by a trusted friend in Israel; he is a Palestinian Christian living in East Jerusalem. He contacted me to tell me that Israel had just bombed a Hospital in Gaza, killing at least 500 civilians, including children and babies. He was emotional. He was trying to wrap his head around the the evil of Israel. 

As he was sharing this with me, I received a news update that confirmed, that indeed, a rocket had hit the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. There were videos that were devastating to watch. And those videos were engendering a lot of anger in the Arab world. It looked terrible. 

I asked my friend how he knew it was Israel who bombed the hospital. He said of course it was Israel. I told him that emotions were really high right now on both sides of this conflict – both Palestinians and Israelis were feeling outraged by what was happening. He asked me why Israel would be outraged and I had to remind him that just 10 days ago, Hamas perpetrated an unprecedented attack against Israeli citizens, killing more than 1400 people. He seemed to have forgotten how this round of violence had started. And then he told me that much of the reported Hamas attack was propaganda, and didn’t happen. 

This is where we are right now. At this point, it doesn’t seem that truth matters in this conflict. Few people are capable of having an informed discussion about the current violence in the Middle East. Everyone’s confirmation bias has kicked in strongly and people scurry towards any information that supports their strongly held understandings of the years of history and conflict between those that live in this contested area held as sacred to those of the monolithic faiths: Christians, Jews and Muslims. 

So much information is coming out so quickly. Fingers are pointed. Assumptions are made. Violence increases and Israeli embassies are attacked in the region. I am suspicious of any news that comes out so fast and so certain of the information. And that is why I didn’t write about this topic yesterday.

There are things going on that none of us knows about. Things that cannot be logically explained – Like how Israel wasn’t aware of the impending terror attack by Hamas? Like, what was the U.S.’s involvement in preventing Israeli intelligence from knowing what Hamas was planning? Like why Hamas would rather have their children die instead of recognizing Israel as a State? Like why US President Joe Biden decided to visit Israel now, while rockets are flying out of Gaza?

Now that a day has passed, there is, in fact, new information that has come out regarding the bombing of the al-Ahli Hospital. According to President Biden, U.S. intelligence sources have confirmed that the hospital was not bombed by Israel, but was likely bombed by the Islamic Jihad group, another armed terror group aligned with Hamas. 

Aside from that assertion, the non-politically aligned group GeoConfirmed (a group that offers comprehensive maps of conflict zones and investigates what’s really going on) has done pretty amazing work to have confirmed that the “missile was launched by a Palestinian group, exploded in mid-air (reason unknown) and one piece fell on the hospital causing an explosion.” They consider their assessment conclusive. You can follow them on Twitter (X). 

As the conflict in this region continues to build, take a step back before being too sure of too much too soon. None of us knows as much as we would like. What we do know is that lives are being lost and that is unacceptable.

But stoking rage, binging on graphic videos of tragedies and stubbornly refusing to view another perspective are unhelpful. Always hold in your mind the possibility that you might be wrong. No one can defend Hamas. But neither is Israel perfect. And while I love my country, the U.S. is also not perfect. Any organization or nation that includes humans is by its very nature flawed. Some just more so than others. 

**UPDATE (2:00 PM, October 18, 2023)

Surprisingly…or perhaps unsurprisingly, reports are now suggesting that not only did Israel NOT bomb a hospital full of civilians, but that the hospital itself was not destroyed.

The BBC puts it this way: “Based on available evidence, it appears the explosion happened in a courtyard which is part of the hospital site. Images of the ground after the blast do not show significant damage to surrounding hospital buildings. What the images do show includes scorch marks and burnt-out cars.”

So we went from Israel indiscriminately killing more than 500 people in a hospital to a misfired Hamas/Islamic Jihad rocket that hit the parking lot of a hospital.

If this version of events remains true, the real story here is the extent to which anti-Israeli propaganda will be believed and the swift, dangerous reactions that will only escalate the conflict and cost lives. Settle down.