Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion

On 17 October 2023, an explosion took place in a courtyard of al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City during the Gaza war, resulting in a large number of displaced Palestinians seeking shelter there being killed or injured.

International media initially reported that over 500 Palestinians were killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM), but this was a mistranslation of a report that had mentioned over 500 total victims, including injured. The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) later reported a more precise figure of 471 killed and 342 wounded. A report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) questioned the Health Ministry's casualty figures. The Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, which manages the hospital, reported 200 people killed, while the U.S. assessed a figure between 100 and 300.

The cause of the explosion is contested. Israel, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada said that their intelligence sources indicated that the cause of the explosion was a failed rocket launch from within the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Hamas and PIJ stated the explosion was caused by an Israeli airstrike.

In the days after the incident, several organizations concluded that an errant rocket from Gaza was the likeliest explanation, including the Associated Press (AP), CNN, The Economist, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Le Monde and the New York Times (NYT) rejected the Israeli interpretation of Al Jazeera and Hevrat HaHadashot footage cited as evidence of a stray rocket from Gaza hitting the hospital, while noting that other evidence was consistent with that hypothesis and concluding that the cause of the blast remained uncertain. In November 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the available evidence made an Israeli airstrike "highly unlikely".

Investigations by Channel 4 News, Al Jazeera, and research groups Earshot and Forensic Architecture (FA) contested Israeli claims of a misfired Palestinian rocket being responsible for the blast. In its investigation on 20 October 2023, Forensic Architecture concluded that the blast was the result of a munition fired from the direction of Israel. Subsequent investigations by Forensic Architecture published in February and October 2024—the first one tracking, in 3D, each rocket in a volley of Palestinian rockets that Israel accused of striking the hospital, and the latter including situated testimony from Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sitta—were said by the organisation to cast further doubt on the errant rocket launch theory.