2022 missile footage misrepresented as Gaza hospital strike

"Nothing is more clear than that!!! A Hamas missile hits the hospital in Gaza..." says an October 17, 2023 post sharing the clip on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Screenshot from X, formerly known as Twitter, taken October 19, 2023

Similar posts spread on X, TikTok and other platforms more than a week after Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group carried out an unprecedented October 7 assault on the country. The Palestinian fighters killed more than 1,400 people and took some 199 hostages, marking the worst attack in Israeli history.

In response, Israel cut off food, water and fuel supplies to Gaza, the densely populated, impoverished territory governed by Hamas, which has been under a blockade for years. Israeli air strikes have also reduced neighborhoods to rubble and killed at least 3,785 people as of October 19, according to the health ministry.

The October 17 rocket strike on a hospital elevated international concern and sparked protests worldwide. The blast left scores of bodies and charred cars at the Ahli Arab hospital compound in northern Gaza, AFP images show.

But both sides have traded blame for the bloody carnage, though neither the provenance of the strike nor the death toll could be immediately or independently verified.

Hamas charged that Israel hit the hospital during its massive bombing campaign, and Gaza's health ministry put the death toll at 471.

Israel blamed a misfired rocket from Islamic Jihad -- the second-largest armed group in Gaza -- by pointing to the absence of a large impact crater typical of its air strikes and insisting that fuel from an errant rocket had exploded.

President Joe Biden and US intelligence have backed Israel's account. An Israeli army spokesman also disputed Hamas's casualty count, and a senior European intelligence source told AFP he believed a maximum of 50 people were killed.

Hamas has dismissed Israel's position, saying its "outrageous lies do not deceive anyone."

Despite posts claiming otherwise, the video circulating online does not provide answers -- while captured in Gaza, it is more than a year old.

Video from August 2022

Reverse image searches reveal the same footage circulated on X, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms as early as August 6, 2022 (archived here, here, here, here and here).

Israeli journalists and the nation's public broadcaster KAN were among those who shared it (archived here, here and here).

The posts say the footage shows a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket near the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

AFP could not independently verify the source of the clip or the specific missile it shows, but Google Maps Street View imagery from Gaza appears to match some of the buildings (archived here).

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Screenshot from X taken October 19, 2023, with elements outlined by AFP

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Screenshot from Google Maps Street View taken October 19, 2023, with elements outlined by AFP

 

Israel and Islamic Jihad exchanged blame for an explosion near Jabalia that killed civilians, including children, on August 6, 2022 -- the day the video appeared online.

Israel had been targeting Islamic Jihad positions but denied responsibility for the strike, insisting that a rocket fired by the militant group had fallen short. The country's forces said they were not firing on the area at the time and posted footage and a radar tracking map they said showed the failed rocket (archived here, here and here).

Residents who witnessed the 2022 blast and spoke to AFP at the time said they believed it was the result of an errant militant rocket. Amnesty International, a global non-governmental organization focused on human rights, also interviewed locals and concluded a Palestinian misfire was to blame (archived here).

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war here.