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LONDON — British intelligence suggests last week’s deadly explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza was caused by a misfired missile launched “from within Gaza and towards Israel,” U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told MPs Monday.
Updating the House of Commons after a trip to the Middle East, Sunak said U.K. authorities had “taken care to look at all the evidence currently available” on the explosion, which killed hundreds of Palestinians at the Gaza Strip hospital and saw fiercely competing claims over culpability.
“On the basis of the deep knowledge and analysis of our intelligence and weapons experts, the British government judges that the explosion was likely caused by a missile or part of one that was launched from within Gaza towards Israel,” the prime minister said.
Sunak also lashed out at what he called “misreporting” of the blast, which he said had a “negative effect in the region, including on a vital U.S. diplomatic effort, and the tensions here at home.”
His comments came as the New York Times walked back its initial coverage on the explosion, saying in an editors’ note that the newspaper had “relied too heavily on claims” made by the Hamas militant group “and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified.”
Sunak also used his Commons statement — in which he reiterated that the U.K. “stands with Israel” — to announce “an additional £20 million of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza,” a move he said more than doubles the U.K.’s existing support to the Palestinian people.
