BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius sees no signs of Israel being responsible for the rocket hit a hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. “Everything suggests that it wasn’t the Israelis,” said the SPD politician on Thursday in the ZDF “heute-journal”. “What benefit should the Israelis get from attacking a civilian hospital?” This is “completely beyond imagination” and makes no sense for what Israel is planning.
“Israel is not a terrorist state. Hamas is the terrorist organization. And therefore one must assume that in case of doubt it was actually a misguided rocket that led to these tragic victims,” said Pistorius.
The health authority controlled by the Islamist Hamas immediately blamed Israel for the rocket attack on the Al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Most recently she spoke of 471 Palestinians who were killed. Israel firmly rejected this accusation and spoke of the impact of a misdirected rocket from the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad – a version that tends to be supported by various pieces of evidence, but is also not proven beyond doubt. According to its “current assessment,” the US government also does not consider Israel to be responsible.
It was still unclear on Thursday how many victims there were in the explosion. There is currently no visual material that could provide clear indications of the high number of victims mentioned by the Palestinian side./kli/DP/he