According to the Associated Press, the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital on Tuesday evening left “gruesome scenes”. The news outlet had confirmed video from the scene, they said, which showed the hospital grounds “strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children”.
Photographs taken the following day indicated that the explosion was centered in the car park of the hospital, which is owned and run by the Anglican Church.
The BBC said that Canon Richard Sewell, the dean of St George’s College in Jerusalem, said “about 1,000 displaced people were sheltering in the courtyard when it was hit, and about 600 patients and staff were inside the building”.
The New York Times reported that:
“On Wednesday, the devastating impact of the explosion at the hospital was becoming clearer. Charred cars lining a parking lot. The courtyard littered with bloody blankets and backpacks. Tattered clothing where dozens of bodies had lain. The smell of blood and burned metal hanging in the air.
Emergency workers were collecting bodies and remains in an effort to identify the dead.
BBC said that “pictures that emerged from Al-Ahli Arab hospital on Tuesday night show scenes of chaos, with bloodied and maimed casualties being rushed out on stretchers in the darkness. Bodies and wrecked vehicles can be seen lying in the rubble-strewn street outside.”
It’s reporter, Rushdi Abualouf had been to the the Al-Ahli Hospital. And BBC said that they had viewed extremely graphic images of victims and survivors at the explosion site, which show catastrophic injuries
But like Sky News, Channel 4 and many other global sites, BBC is now devoting considerable resources to clarifying exactly what caused the explosion at the hospital.
That’s mostly because the British broadcaster, again in common with many others, found itself scrambling after initially reporting that Israel had targeted Al-Ahli, a charge which Israel denied, blaming a misfire of a Palestinian rocket.
Hamas then counter-charged that Israel was lying. Israel said that Hamas were the liars, and terrorists to boot.
Chaos, as author John Krakauer once wrote, is indeed the normal state on the battlefield. And what happened this week is a reminder of the by-now sadly familiar fog of war.
Both sides of the conflict are now blaming the other for the death and devastation at the hospital, as are their allies across the world. Social media is choked with videos and long diatribes supposedly proving conclusively that either Israel was responsible or that Hamas’ allies carelessly killed innocent Palestinians.
Thus far, most media platforms have now shifted to deciding that the evidence is inconclusive. But what is certain is that many people were killed.
It’s disturbingly similar to the reaction to a video from an Israeli reporter reporting the horrifying attack by Hamas on the kibbutz of Kfar Aza on October, when the claim that babies were beheaded went viral.
That claim became the focus of an increasingly vitriolic debate. As is now the case with Al-Ahli hospital, it became a white-hot issue with more heat than light.
And as now, innumerable fact-checks were carried out which were also inconclusive, but what does it say about the reaction when it didn’t seem to matter that babies were indisputably killed, only that the precise injuries were in dispute.
The Israeli government eventually released heart-breaking, horrifying photographs of dead babies, showing burnt corpses and murdered small children with bloodied baby gros.
That so many reacted with glee at the absence of photographic evidence of a beheaded child was profoundly depressing, just as it is appalling now to see supporters of Israel seize on reports from allies which claim that the figure given by Hamas for the numbers who died at Al-Ahli may have been overstated.
We have come to the point now where supporters of both sides are effectively saying: “bring out your dead and prove to us your suffering”. The fog of war masks not just death and destruction but a great indifference to the humanity and the suffering of those caught in the middle of this bloody conflict.
For both Israel and Hamas, the explosion at Al-Ahli and the killing of babies is vitally important in the context of the battle for hearts and minds. These extreme events move and shape public opinion.
Sadly, the truth is that supporters on both sides can point to atrocities to persuade the public of the cruelty of its opponents.
According to the UN, Israel have, in fact, targeted hospitals and UN schools and “densely populated refugee camps”. CNN reports that “the UN and Doctors Without Borders say Israeli airstrikes have struck medical facilities, including hospitals and ambulances”. That is, to most observers, unconscionable.
And the savagery of the scenes captured as Hamas not only massacred innocent civilians but paraded their dead bodies in a sickening display of triumph appalled the world.
In the age of social media, doctored videos, and viral soundbites, its especially true that a lie – or at least a misunderstanding – can indeed go half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on.
Those who are not aligned to one side or another in the war, and whose primary concern is with innocent civilians, are left floundering in search of what is real and what is unknown, disputed, or just plain misleading. Who can be trusted, who can be believed?
Neither Palestine nor its allies are going to believe what U.S. intelligence says about any such incidence, because it is unequivocally an ally of Israel.
Yesterday, British Prime Minister told Israel, “we want you to win”. Mr Sunak has every right to pin his country’s colours to the mast but, for those who are not championing one side over another, it does bring Britain’s trustworthiness in adjudicating on atrocities somewhat into question.
Similarly, Israel’s champions mistrust the nations surrounding the conflict because many of them have taken part in attacks against Israel over the years.
Perhaps this is a role for the United Nations, who are on the ground providing aid, and who could construct the capacity to assess information if it was assisted by the authorities in each jurisdiction and its allies.
A special unit undertaking such a task would need to be established at speed – and be obliged, when feasible, to adjudicate as quickly as possible on the most grave and consequential of the disputed actions.
The UN has its critics, and I am amongst them, but it seems to me that bringing clarity to these situations would be a more correct use of its resources than the endless hours spent picking at democratic countries for supposed human rights negligence.
Otherwise, what is the solution? The governments of the west can’t simply chose to disbelieve Palestinians because they support Israel, any more than Israel’s enemies can be relied on for fully neutral assessment. And the media are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it questions the validity of statements made by either side.
Until such a neutral adjudicator is found, the media mostly has an obligation to assess the evidence and to be balanced in reporting without fear or favour. Any other stance simply adds to the fog of war.
Photo Credit: Palestinians look for survivors after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah refugee camp, South Gaza Strip, 12 October 2023. Anas-Mohammed / Shutterstock