Where are the bodies?: Israel on Gaza hospital blast

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) on Thursday refuted claims made by the Palestinian side that Israel was behind the bomb explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

The IDF also poked holes in the claims made by Hamas that several people had been killed in the explosion.

In a video briefing, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus while reiterating the Israeli PM's statement that the Islamic Jihad was behind the explosion at the Hospital said that the preliminary analysis suggests that the "rocket" exploded in the car parking and seems like no one was killed in the incident.

While describing a video analysis, the IDF spokesperson said, "We can see that this area is quite black, this appears that there was a large fire. This is really the centre of where the rocket impacted, the impact point of the rocket. What I see here is about 15 cars that were affected by the rocket that fell, I see remains of fire, what I don't see are bodies."

The IDF also questioned claims by the Hamas controlled health ministry in Gaza that several people had been killed in the explosion.

"If five hundred people were indeed killed here or 471 which is the latest update from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, this is just a few minutes after the fire erupted, where are all the bodies..., If so many people were killed, where are the bodies" said Lt. Col Conricus.

In his analysis the IDF spokesperson stated that pictures clicked from the explosion site showed a huge fire, but when an Israeli bomb hits a target it makes a big crater and not a fire.

"If you have been watching the news, this is exactly what a rocket impact cited Israel looks like, that's what we see when a rocket impacts Israel. We don't see Giant creators, because it's not hundreds of pounds of bombs. We see fires, we see burnt cars and burnt stuff because when rocket lands usually they ignite a fire" the IDF stated.

The massive explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital late on Tuesday night killed 471 people and injured 314 others, the Palestinian Health Ministry has said.

However, there were conflicting claims of who was behind the explosion.

Hamas officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike, saying hundreds were killed.

Israel denied that it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller, more radical Palestinian militant group that often cooperates with Hamas in their shared struggle against Israel, has dismissed Israel's allegation.

The United States said that its analysis indicates that Israel was not responsible for the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of civilians on Tuesday.