Inside the IDF's Race to Answer the 2023 Al-Ahli Hospital Blast

An account published by The Jerusalem Post on October 25, 2026 describes how the Israeli military handled the explosion at Gaza's al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, 2023. According to the account, the incident was the first of several during the war that had the potential to halt it entirely.

The sequence began that evening, when then IDF Chief Spokesman Daniel Hagari was heading to give his daily briefing and an officer told him of reports of a mass-casualty strike on a hospital. Hamas had fired rockets at 6:15 p.m., and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched a barrage of about 10 more near 7:00 p.m. The reports of an explosion came soon afterward. At that point, the account says, no one in the military or government knew whether Israel was responsible.

There was pressure from the political leadership to dismiss the allegation outright, but the spokesperson's office insisted on establishing facts first. The stakes were high. Unverified reports had already sparked riots in Amman, Turkey and Cairo, and Arab leaders canceled a summit planned with then US president Joe Biden, who was already in the air. He still landed in Israel to show solidarity after the Hamas attack.

Inside the military, a first air force review found one bomb with no battle damage assessment. It had been aimed at a target about a kilometer from the hospital, but officials could not fully rule out a misfire without further checks. Then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and then Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi sought regular updates, since the episode threatened to end the war before Israel's ground invasion of Gaza, which began on October 27. A drone was sent to the hospital perimeter, a process that would take several hours.

Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence intercepted messages in which two Hamas operatives acknowledged that a rocket they had misfired from a cemetery hit the hospital. A brigadier general serving as deputy to then Intelligence Chief Aharon Haliva approved publication, and around 11:00 p.m. Hagari announced in English that the IDF had intelligence showing Islamic Jihad was responsible. The reaction abroad barely changed. Halevi then backed releasing the recordings itself, which required four to six more hours of preparation to protect sources.

The drone footage eventually showed that no Israeli or American munition had hit the site, and that the target was the hospital's parking lot, where many displaced people were sheltering. An analysis concluded the rocket had flown such a short distance that it was still full of fuel gas, which together with nails inside it caused around 50 deaths, not the roughly 500 Hamas claimed. The IDF also planned to release air force video and radar data, and Col. Avichai Adraee personally translated the intercepted exchanges.

At Hagari's English-language press conference the next morning, the first question cited the IDF's earlier false denial in the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, asking why reporters should now trust the military. Hagari said he had not been in his post then and presented three points: radar data, phone intercepts and air force video. He told reporters, "1000%," that the munition was not American or Israeli. Within hours, the BBC and The New York Times changed their coverage. Biden watched the briefing aboard Air Force One and later adopted the Israeli account.

The Post reports that the episode restored some IDF credibility, but that later crises, including the World Central Kitchen and bakery incidents, were not always handled as well. The IDF acknowledges that it sometimes lacks clear information in the fog of war, or obtains it only after the media has moved on. Some social media accounts still claimed months later that Israel killed children at the hospital. IDF sources told the Post that Israel needs a diplomatic public relations mechanism beyond the spokesperson's office.