Tipsheet

The Media and the Squad Were Awfully Quick to Blame Israel for Hospital Blast in Gaza

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  October 18, 2023 10:05 AM

Yesterday afternoon, US time, a huge explosion rocked a crowded hospital in Gaza, reportedly killing hundreds.  The 'Health Ministry' in the territory -- better known as Hamas, the terrorist organization that just slaughtered 1,300 Jews a week-and-a-half ago -- immediately blamed Israel, as Hamas is wont to do.  Despite a long history of Hamas lying and killing Jews, and despite Israel's longstanding and extensive efforts to avoid civilian casualties (including 'roof knocks' and evacuation warnings), much of the news media reflexively rushed to uncritically report the terrorists' accusation.  By the time even some of the resulting dust had settled, the narrative that the Israelis had bombed the hospital had zoomed around the world.  

The narrative was extremely premature, and was quickly called into serious doubt by emerging and growing evidence that the culprit for the blast was an errant rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists, intended for Israel.  But by the point that facts were starting to get checked, these headlines and news alerts had already been pushed out to countless millions, all over the world:


A number of governments followed suit:


Why did the IDF feel confident in asserting, just hours later, that the explosion for which they'd been blamed was caused by "an Islamic Jihad rocket" that "misfired and hit the hospital"? The aforementioned emerging and growing evidence. For instance, an anti-Israel network appearing to have aired the rocket barrage in question as it happened, live, and other footage:


This would appear to be some additional independent confirmation:

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There's also this:


This signals intelligence -- intercepted chatter of terrorists discussing what happened, apparently verified by the US -- represents one of several smoking guns implicating Palestinian terrorists and exonerating Israel. President Biden has now asserted Israel's innocence on the matter.  Indeed, after daybreak in Gaza, the damage appeared much less dramatic than had been initially reported, strongly suggesting that immediate casualty figures from Hamas were lies (a blow to people who rushed out with inaccuracies and also suggested that only Israeli weaponry could have caused such damage).  The public relations damage was done, however, and accuracy was secondary to an appalling number of people, including certain members of Congress.  It shouldn't be too hard to guess which ones:


"Israel just bombed." "Gravest of war crimes." Even this morning, with definitive countervailing evidence available and still mounting, both tweets remained live.  When it comes to anti-Semitic blood libels and anti-Israel misinformation, these two have boundless appetites.  I'll leave you with some frightening, real-world consequences of false, highly-combustible information zooming all across the world (some have wondered if the size and scope of these 'spontaneous' protests were too vast to be fully organic), as well as a dark observation about when certain figures do, and do not, rush to judgment:

It took Tlaib days to somewhat clarify that she opposes Hamas beheading Jewish infants, though she didn't even muster a condemnation of Hamas in doing so.  Atrocious: