The bombing of a Gaza hospital on Tuesday has illustrated how quickly misinformation has been weaponized in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The explosion at al-Ahli Arab Hospital occurred around 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday, and Hamas instantly blamed an Israeli airstrike, saying hundreds of innocent people had been killed. In that same time period, the Israel Defense Forces announced it would investigate.
ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE RELEASES AUDIO OF HAMAS DISCUSSING 'MISFIRED' HOSPITAL STRIKE: 'IT'S FROM US?'
Just hours later, however, the IDF confidently concluded it was not responsible for what happened; rather, a different terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, had fired a series of rockets from Gaza and one failed to launch properly, landing next to the hospital.
But that failed to stop multiple media organizations, as well as Democratic politicians, from echoing the Hamas talking points. Widespread condemnation of Israel resulted in thousands of students rallying at Egyptian universities, protests in Lebanon, including near the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and similar events in Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain, according to the Associated Press.
"Hamas immediately reported to the international community that this was carried out by Israel, that there were hundreds of people that were killed, without any checks and balances. The challenges is, is that many media outlets in the international community took what Hamas said as if it is a reliable source. A terrorist organization that has just massacred the Israeli population," IDF spokesman Maj. Doron Spielman told the Washington Examiner.
The IDF's investigation found there "was no direct hit of the hospital itself," rather "the only location damaged, is outside the hospital in the parking lot where we can see signs of burning, [but] no cratering and no structural damage to the nearby buildings," spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said during a press conference. He also accused Hamas of inflating the death toll to stoke outrage toward the Israelis.
"Hamas checked the reports, understood it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that had misfired — and decided to launch a global media campaign to hide what really happened," he said. "They went as far as inflating the number of casualties. They understood, with absolute certainty, that it was a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad — that damaged the hospital."
By the time Israel came out with its conclusions, however, "the damage had been done," said Spielman. “The damage is not just that they defamed Israel. The damage is that they misinformed their audiences and also caused [an] enormous series of uprisings around the world."
In addition to the protests across the Middle East, the explosion at the hospital prompted the cancellation of President Joe Biden's meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Biden and the National Security Council have said they do not believe the explosion at the hospital was a result of an Israeli airstrike.
"As you know, we are experiencing an extremely volatile and tense situation in the region. Emotions have been running high for days now, and in the fog of war, it can be easy to get caught up in the fast pace of events on the ground," Tal Naim, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Washington Examiner. "It is especially during these times that journalism provides a necessary service to the public, and in every democratic society, it helps keep people informed and aware of what’s going on."
She added: "As you also probably know, open-source intelligence has shown that the tragedy at the hospital in Gaza City last night was caused by an errant rocket launched by the PIJ terror group."
"Before publishing unverified claims or numbers from the health service in Gaza, which is run by Hamas (the same terror group which carried out the mass slaughter of Israeli civilians on October 7), I would ask that you take extra precautions to confirm this information. We have already seen the incendiary effect that this false report has caused. Journalism has a vital role to play here in preventing this war from spiraling throughout the region."
Israel has a "big challenge" when it comes to countering Hamas claims because they "have no value for the truth," Hagari later said, adding that the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has drafted hundreds of reserves to help with public diplomacy and messaging.
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The current tension between Israel and Hamas, which Spielman described as "something different than what we've seen before in our lifetimes," came as a result of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas and PIJ in southern Israel. More than 1,500 terrorists came through Israel's border and killed mostly civilians. Roughly 1,400 people were killed in the attacks, which marked the deadliest incident for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The hospital strike is the latest in a series of unverified rumors that have gained steam and received media coverage. In one horrific example, there were claims that as many as 40 Israeli babies were beheaded in a kibbutz, though the IDF has seemingly walked that back. Netanyahu's office has released disturbing photos of the remains of a baby whose body was badly burnt and another of a murdered toddler.
Separately, an intentionally misleading clip went viral on social media of Qatar's emir threatening to cut off natural gas exports in response to Israeli airstrikes while there were inaccurate claims that the Israelis destroyed the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrios.