Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, July 24, 2016.
REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Netanyahu’s office posted on X that the Israel-Hamas conflict is a “struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness.”
The post went up on Monday afternoon.
It was deleted on Tuesday, around the time news emerged of a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Israel’s conflict with Hamas is a “struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.”
The post went up on Monday afternoon and was quoting Netanyahu’s remarks to the Knesset. It was deleted on Tuesday, when reports of a hospital explosion in Gaza began to emerge that the Hamas-run health ministry said killed hundreds of people.
Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip in the wake of Hamas’ deadly terrorist attacks in southern Israel on October 7 that claimed more than 1,400 lives. Since Israel launched its counteroffensive, more than 2,800 Palestinians have died, including hundreds of children, according to Gazan health officials.
It’s unclear which side caused the blast; Israel and Palestinian groups both blamed each other in the wake of the explosion.
Graphic photos published by wire services appeared to show wounded Palestinians after the attack. Gazan health officials said that at least 500 people had died as a result of the bombing.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Facebook Tuesday that Israeli forces had attacked the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, “which shelters displaced people from the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip.”
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said in a statement that “an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed through the vicinity of the hospital when it was hit.”
Netanyahu also posted on X that “an analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.”
“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad,” an extremist group operating in Gaza, “is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza,” he added.
A spokesperson for Islamic Jihad denied the claim, saying in a statement to The Times that “there were no operations by the Al-Quds Brigades in the area at all,” referring to the group’s military wing.