Editorial: A willingness to blame Israel for hospital horror

The horrifying first version of the story was that Israel had fired a rocket at a hospital, killing hundreds of civilians. This telling of events was accepted with little qualification by, among others, the BBC. Its online newsflash the national broadcaster did attribute the claim to Palestinians. But it should have said that a blast of as yet unknown origin had happened and then given Palestinian and Israel claims equal prominence.

Similar reports in multiple nations heavily implied this was an Israeli strike. Internal alarm bells should have been ringing with any reputable media outfit. First, the claims as the number of people killed. Second, the claims as to blame.

Last night, 24 hours after the tragedy, details of what happened were still being probed. But a few things were obvious as soon as the blast was known. A first is that Hamas are raping mass murderers committed to annihilating Jews in the region –something days ago they tried to put into practice. They are also fanatical propagandists and liars. A fool would believe them.

The second is that the Israelis, while ruthless in their security measures, do not seek civilian targets.

The third is that the Israelis have among the most precise missiles on Earth.

Israel haters will not accept any of these points but the media should. It has since emerged that the crater in the car park was far too small to be an Israeli rocket and that the main building escaped the brunt of the explosion. So we do not, and might never, know how many people died. That anyone did is atrocious. President Biden, partly relying on US defence intelligence, says a failed terror rocket was to blame. The rushed, biased reports ignited fury across the Middle East. Blaming Israel was an bid to divert attention from Hamas mass slaughter. And to a fair extent it worked.