The IDF Spokesperson officially confirmed on Tuesday night that the IDF did not attack the Ahli Baptist Hospital in central Gaza and that the explosion was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket.
"Following an additional review and cross-examination of the operational and intelligence systems, it is clear that the IDF did not strike the hospital in Gaza," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement.
"The hospital was hit as a result of a failed rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization."
"The terrorist organizations within the Gaza Strip fire indiscriminately toward Israel. Since the beginning of the war, approximately 450 rockets launched toward Israel have fallen within Gaza, endangering and harming the lives of Gazan residents," the statement said.
The IDF also published a photograph from the IDF launch identification system:
Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit
Earlier, the IDF announced that the initial investigation into the explosion at the hospital, where Hamas claims as many as 500 people were killed, was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket that was misfired and struck the hospital and not by an Israeli airstrike.
The IDF initial statement said that “an analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit."
"Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza," the statement added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the explosion at the hospital in Gaza and wrote, " "The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF."
"Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children."
Minister Benny Gantz wrote, "The missiles of The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) murdered this evening innocent Palestinians in a hospital in Gaza. The elimination of terror organizations Hamas and the PIJ is a moral necessity for Israelis, for Palestinians and for the whole world."
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman wrote, "Further to the official announcement by the IDF Spokesperson, it has been proven beyond any doubt that the Islamic Jihad is the one responsible for the explosion in the hospital in Gaza, which indicates the fact that under and near the hospitals in the Gaza Strip there are stockpiles of missiles and their launchers and that the hospitalized are being used as human shields. When will the world wake up and realize that we are dealing with monsters worse than the Nazis?!"
Foreign nations and media outlets rushed to blame Israel for the blast almost immediately after Hamas announced that the hospital had been struck.
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced three days of mourning in response to the initial report of hundreds killed at the hospital.
The BBC network immediately adopted all of Hamas' talking points on the incident, continuing its pattern of bias against Israel.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the "Israeli bombing of the Al-Ahli Al-Mamadani hospital in Gaza which led to the death of hundreds of innocent victims and wounded among the Palestinian citizens in Gaza."
Crowds rioted Tuesday evening outside the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, in response to the explosion at the hospital. Dozens of rioters attempted to storm the embassy.