20-10-2023 (WASHINGTON) The US intelligence community, in an unclassified assessment provided to AFP by a Capitol Hill source, has estimated that the strike on Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza resulted in the likely loss of 100 to 300 lives. This number is significantly lower than the initial report of nearly 500 casualties provided by health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave.
The US intelligence assessment places the number of casualties at the “low end of the 100-to-300 spectrum,” while emphasizing that their assessment is an ongoing process, and the figures may change. Nevertheless, this assessment underscores the significant loss of life.
In a statement, the document expressed the United States’ serious concern for the deaths of civilians and its commitment to addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The strike took place at approximately 5 pm GMT on Tuesday, when the Gaza health ministry reported an Israeli air strike on the Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza City.
According to Gaza officials, the blast claimed the lives of at least 471 people, with over 300 individuals sustaining injuries. Hamas has attributed these casualties to an Israeli air strike, while the Israeli army has countered, pointing to a misfired rocket from another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad.
The US intelligence document challenges the assertion that Israel directly bombed the hospital, suggesting that the United States is actively investigating whether the explosion resulted from a failed Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket. Notably, the document notes that there was only minor structural damage to the hospital, with no discernible harm to the primary hospital building or impact craters.
On the ground, AFP correspondents witnessed numerous bodies being recovered, with medics and civilians wrapping them in white cloth, blankets, or black plastic bags. The hospital courtyard bore witness to bloodstains and torched cars.
Satellite images provided by the Maxar monitoring group showed that the hospital buildings primarily remained intact, despite the explosion.
Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus challenged the figures reported by the Hamas-run ministry, asking, “Where are all the bodies?” In response, Hamas dismissed Israel’s position, stating that their claims were “outrageous lies.”
The US death toll estimate, as provided by the intelligence community, is higher than the assessment of a senior European intelligence source, who earlier suggested to AFP that he believed around 50 people had been killed.
While EU chief Ursula von der Leyen condemned the targeting of a hospital filled with civilians in Gaza, she did not assign blame for the incident.
Gaza has faced an unrelenting barrage of Israeli attacks in response to a Hamas militant assault on October 7, which, according to Israel, resulted in the deaths of at least 1,400 people, primarily civilians. Subsequently, Israeli airstrikes have led to the loss of at least 3,785 Palestinian lives in the Gaza Strip, with the majority being civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry. As a result, tens of thousands of families have sought refuge in and around Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals in the wake of the relentless bombardment.
