Outrage over ‘massacre’ in Gaza as Israel rescued four hostages
theguardian.com
At least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 wounded in Israeli strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday. The Israeli military said its forces came under heavy fire during the daytime operation.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, called it a “massacre”, while the UN’s aid chief described in graphic detail scenes of “shredded bodies on the ground”.
“Nuseirat refugee camp is the epicentre of the seismic trauma that civilians in Gaza continue to suffer,” Martin Griffiths said in a post on X, calling for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages.
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Oh yeah, like those 500 people that were killed in a hospital parking lot bombing by the IDF, according to hamas but turned out it was a hamas rocket dud and like 5 people died?
Oh so reliable...
US intelligence estimates between 100-300 deaths.
It's also still unclear what caused the explosion. Numerous theories have been put forth but the evidence for nearly all of them was eventually disproven. For example, the missiles fired by Hamas alleged to be a dud were shown to be inconsistent with the timing of the explosion. These rockets didn't show any misfiring in the video footage we have of the event.
Similarly, the crater at the site is inconsistent with Israeli munitions. There's the possibility of an iron dome interception gone wrong, but that too is unlikely.
One theory I didn't see discussed much was the idea that it was debris or shrapnel that was launched from the impact zone of nearby Israeli airstrikes. Israel was bombing targets very close to the hospital (as can be seen on the video) and timing-wise it matches better than most other theories. Debris gets launched from a nearby airstrike, lands in the parking lot and ignites several gas tanks there, causing the fireball on the video. This would also explain the lack of a matching missile on the video evidence.
But that too remains without much supporting evidence. It's likely that we'll never find the exact cause.
I don't think I ever saw a report claiming 500 dead. I saw reports claiming it appeared that Israel targeted a hospital, which turned out to be a mistake (in that instance). It's not like that was the worst they had done even then, so it being held up like it was an outstanding claim is misrepresenting the facts.
Here
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/least-500-victims-israeli-air-strike-hospital-gaza-health-ministry-2023-10-17/
That was a mistranslation from Al-Jazeera English iirc, the original claim was 500 casualties, not deaths. Unfortunately someone in the chain fucked up there.
Was 500 casualties confirmed btw?
Hard to confirm anything, but the US intelligence sticks to 100-300 deaths + an unnamed number of wounded. 500 casualties is likely a high estimate, but it's not so outrageously high that it's unbelievable. There were a lot of people there at the time, and if it was indeed a gas explosion from the parked cars, then a lot of casualties are expected.
The same intelligence that said it was not an Israeli bomb. Which is probably true. But it's difficult to imagine how that many people could be at the site (basically a small parking place), seeing its photos.