Doctors struggle to save survivors after Gaza hospital bombed

Israeli military officials on Wednesday morning said Palestinian militants were responsible for Tuesday’s explosion at the al-Ahli hospital in the Gaza Strip that killed hundreds. Hamas leaders have blamed an Israeli airstrike. Body counts reported from the blast have varied. The Gaza Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 471 dead, while the director of the city’s main al-Shifa hospital said he thought the toll was closer to 250.

Who bombed the hospital? Israeli military officials on Wednesday said radar evidence shows that the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired a rocket barrage from a nearby cemetery at the time of the blast. Independent video showed one of the rockets in the barrage falling out of the sky and hitting the hospital's parking lot, said Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. Hamas dismissed these claims, claiming the extent of the damage and the angle of the bomb’s fall pointed to Israeli airstrikes as the cause.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew about how the Hamas attack affects U.S. foreign policy.