On Tuesday afternoon, Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar rushed to Twitter to repeat Hamas’s claim that Israel had bombed a Gaza hospital, killing 500 civilians, as though it were a fact.
“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” Tlaib tweeted. “Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes. The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific,” Omar tweeted.
But video, intelligence intercepts, and photographs quickly emerged that refuted the claim that originated with Hamas’s Gaza Ministry of Health. The destruction appeared to be the “result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza,” President Biden said Wednesday morning. Photographs showed that a bomb hit the parking lot outside of the hospital—not the building itself—making Hamas’s tally of 500 deaths virtually impossible to believe.
Twenty-four hours after posting their false claims blaming Israel, Omar and Tlaib still haven’t deleted them. In the Capitol on Wednesday, both Omar and Tlaib were unwilling to answer any questions from National Review about their decision to post and stand by misinformation that has incited riots around the world:
The National Security Council and the top Democrat and top Republican on the House intelligence committee said on Wednesday that intelligence showed Israel was not to blame.
House Democratic leaders affirmed that assessment on Wednesday, but they declined to call on Omar and Tlaib to retract their false claims blaming Israel for the deaths of 500 civilians.
Former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi told National Review that “the intelligence said that there was no evidence that” Israel was behind the bombing. But when asked if members of the Democratic caucus should delete tweets blaming Israel, Pelosi said: “I don’t know who’s doing what. I really haven’t paid attention to other members.”
“I haven’t seen those comments,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told National Review after being informed that Tlaib and Omar had blamed Israel for the bombing.
Democratic congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona, told National Review that he had “no information” on the bombing and said he needed more information before he could say if Omar and Tlaib should delete their tweets blaming Israel.