Explore More
The Israel Defense Forces released an audio recording Wednesday morning of what it said were two Islamic Jihad terrorists admitting responsibility for the Gaza City hospital bombing a day before that killed hundreds of people.
The clip, posted on X, is captioned “Islamic Jihad struck a Hospital in Gaza—the IDF did not. Listen to the terrorists as they realize this themselves.”
It was released as Hamas and Israel blamed each other for the attack on the Al Ahli Arab Hospital, which was crammed with Palestinians injured in retaliatory Israel airstrikes and residents seeking refuge.
“Is it from us?” one operative is heard asking on the recording, according to the IDF’s translation.
“It looks like it,” his cohort replies.
The purported members of Islamic Jihad — an arm of the ruling militant group Hamas — are then heard acknowledging that the shrapnel of the missile “are local pieces, and not Israeli shrapnel,” from rockets fired from the “cemetery behind the hospital.”
“But God bless, it couldn’t have found another place to explode?,” one of them asked.
Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel
Hamas leaders have fingered Israel and the US for the attack, while Israel claimed that a failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch resulted in the devastation, as leaders noted some 450 other rockets fired from Gaza had fallen short of Israel in the past week and a half.
As protesters blaming Israel took to the streets in Arab countries throughout the region, President Biden spoke alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and said Israel was not to blame for the attack, citing “the data I was shown by my Defense Department.”
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden told Netanyahu.
Looking to help? Donate here to UJA-Federation of New York’s emergency fund to supply critical aid to the people of Israel, working with a network of nonprofits helping Jewish communities around the world.
Israel said its radar and an independent video depicted a misfired rocket barrage that caused a large explosion as it hit the hospital.
It also said the blast left no crater, as a deliberate strike would have.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
The IDF’s audio post was met with widespread skepticism on X, as many users questioned the veracity of the high-quality recording and wondered why the military was now able to surveil Hamas operatives but was caught off guard by the group’s heinous and long-planned Oct. 7 surprise attack across the disputed border that killed more than 1,400.
The strike on the hospital was the deadliest single incident since war broke out following that onslaught. According to Gaza officials, it killed more than 500 people.
Before the hospital attack, Israeli strikes had killed at least 2,778 Palestinians and injured nearly 10,000 with 1,200 others thought to be buried under rubble, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Israel also ordered the displacement of more than a million people from the northern part of the densely populated Gaza Strip, escalating an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the blockaded territory.
With Post wires
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3R7kGlmanBfnrGnedGeo56Zo5rAbq3UnaCoZZ%2BberWx0aumq6GjqcBurcOmoK2smaO0bsDHnrBmnpmnsqV5wK1koaejpba1rcto