Now on Monday, NASA hospital, the
largest in southern Gaza and one of the
few still partially operating in the
strip, was hit twice by Israeli strikes.
At least 20 people were reportedly
killed, including journalists and
medical staff. A new investigation by
BBC Verify has uncovered that the
hospital was hit four times. With me now
is Merlin Thomas from BBC Verify. Her hi
Merlin. So tell us more about what
you've uncovered. Initially, reports
from Gaza said that Israel had hit NASA
hospital twice, but our investigation
has uncovered that in fact, Israel had
hit the hospital four times. Now, let me
talk you through the timeline a bit.
There was a hit at 10:08 a.m. local time
when Husam al- Masri, a journalist who
was operating a live uh feed for
Reuters, was killed on the eastern
staircase of NASA hospital. Now, new
footage we've obtained shows that at the
practically the same time, the northern
staircase was also hit. Now, let me show
you the footage. We can see uh smoke
pouring out of the northern staircase as
well as the eastern staircase. Now, the
blast at the northern staircase had
previously gone unreported because the
so-called double strike on the hospital
had overshadowed uh this blast that we
have uncovered. And videos we've seen
show an injured person being carried
down the stairs. And we've shown the
videos of the damage inside uh the
hospital as well to munitions experts
who who said that this damage appeared
consistent with a relatively small
munition traveling at a relatively flat
trajectory as well.
>> And then how does this uh follow
through? Because there was then another
strike.
>> Yes. So 9 minutes later, Israel hit the
eastern staircase again and that is
where there were first responders and
journalists and that is when they were
killed. Now just before I show you this
footage, I'll say that we won't be
showing you the moment of the hit
itself. But when we slow the video down
and watch it frame by frame, we can see
that actually there is one projectile
and then you see them the blast itself
and then we see a subsequent projectile
as well which those two projectiles are
within fraction of a second of each
other which brings the total number of
times that Israel has hit the hospital
to four times
>> and Israel is conducting its own
investigation. What have they said?
Well, their statements on this attack
have evolved over the past week since
the attack itself. So, uh, initially the
Israeli military said that it regretted
harm to uninvolved individuals. Then
hours later, Benjamin Netanyahu, the
prime minister said that, uh, he called
it a tragic mishap. Uh and then on
Tuesday when there there was an initial
inquiry conducted by the Israeli
military, they said that it had been
targeting a quote camera positioned by
Hamas, but they didn't provide any
evidence of this. And when we presented
our findings to the Israeli military,
they didn't add any additional comments,
and they still haven't acknowledged the
multiple strikes on the hospital. But
our investigation raises multiple
questions about why Israel hit the
hospital four times.