Gaza Hospital Assault: US continues to be assessing the seemingly casualty figures after assault on hospital in Gaza.
Washington:
The US intelligence group has estimated there have been seemingly 100 to 300 individuals killed within the strike on the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, based on excerpts of a doc seen Thursday by AFP — far fewer than the practically 500 deaths that well being authorities within the Hamas-ruled enclave initially described.
An unclassified US intelligence evaluation, offered to AFP by a Capitol Hill supply, estimates the variety of individuals killed on the hospital Tuesday night time on the “low finish of the 100-to-300 spectrum.”
“We’re nonetheless assessing the seemingly casualty figures and our evaluation could evolve, however this demise toll nonetheless displays a staggering lack of life,” the doc mentioned.
“America takes critically the deaths of all civilians, and is working intensively to deal with the humanitarian disaster in Gaza,” the doc mentioned.
The strike occurred at round 1700 GMT Tuesday, when the well being ministry in Gaza mentioned an Israeli air strike had hit the Christian-run Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza Metropolis.
Gaza officers have mentioned a minimum of 471 individuals have been killed within the blast, with greater than 300 wounded.
Hamas has accused an Israeli air strike for the killings, whereas Israeli military has blamed a misfired rocket from one other Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad.
In keeping with the US intelligence doc, “Israel in all probability didn’t bomb (the) Gaza Strip hospital,” and that the US is continuous “to work to corroborate whether or not the explosion resulted from a failed PIJ (Palestine Islamic Jihad) rocket.”
The doc additionally says there was “solely mild structural injury on the hospital,” with “no observable injury to the principle hospital constructing and no affect craters.”
AFP correspondents on the scene noticed dozens of our bodies, with medics and civilians recovering our bodies wrapped in white material, blankets or black plastic luggage.
Bloodstains and torched vehicles may very well be seen within the hospital courtyard.
Pictures of the hospital after the strike revealed by the Maxar satellite tv for pc monitoring group present the hospital buildings primarily gave the impression to be intact.
Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus has additionally disputed the Hamas-run ministry’s figures, asking “the place are all of the our bodies?”
Hamas has dismissed Israel’s place, saying its “outrageous lies don’t deceive anybody.”
America’ demise toll estimate is larger than the 50 individuals {that a} senior European intelligence supply beforehand informed AFP he believed had been killed.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has mentioned there’s “no excuse for hitting a hospital filled with civilians” in Gaza, however has not apportioned blame for the blast.
Gaza has been hit by a relentless barrage of Israeli fireplace in retaliation for a Hamas militant assault on October 7, which Israel says killed a minimum of 1,400 individuals, most of them civilians.
Israeli bombing since has killed a minimum of 3,785 Palestinians within the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, based on the Hamas well being ministry.
Tens of hundreds of households have sought refuge from the bombardment in and round Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
