Sky News debunks Israeli justification for Gaza hospital strike

Israel’s justification for bombing the European Hospital in Gaza has been debunked by Sky News’ Data and Forensics Team which contradicted the Israeli occupation military’s claims that the hospital housed an underground Hamas base. The strike, which killed at least 16 people, is part of a larger pattern of attacks on Gaza’s health infrastructure, with dozens of hospitals and medical centres damaged or destroyed over the past 19 months.

Israel claimed on Tuesday that it had struck a Hamas “command and control centre” beneath the European Hospital near Khan Yunis, releasing aerial footage as evidence. But Sky News analysis revealed that the video does not show the hospital at all — rather, it depicts the adjacent Jenin Secondary School for Boys. Satellite imagery expert Corey Scher of Oregon State University said the markings Israel presented as signs of underground terrorist infrastructure were in fact drainage ditches, visible in earlier images.

The occupation army later confirmed the footage was from outside the hospital grounds but insisted without evidence that underground infrastructure continued beneath the hospital itself. No independent evidence has supported that claim.

READ: Israel falsely claimed Gaza hospital had tunnel after striking it: Israel media says 

The European Hospital was hit again twice the next day, according to British surgeon Tom Potokar, who was inside the facility when it was attacked. His footage shows smoke rising from a bulldozer clearing rubble in the hospital courtyard.

British surgeon Tom Potokar re Gaza’s European hospital after being hit by multiple Israel bombs: ‘This is where kids with cancer are waiting to be evacuated and supposed to be ‘deconflicted’ pic.twitter.com/w4GW3dRuc8

— Alex Crawford (@AlexCrawfordSky) May 13, 2025

Just hours before that strike, Israel also bombed Nasser Hospital, another of Gaza’s few remaining functioning medical centres. Footage verified by Sky News shows the top floors of the hospital in flames, with the sound of an Israeli aircraft in the background. Israel alleged Hamas officials were hiding there but, again, offered no evidence.

These attacks are part of what health officials and human rights groups describe as a systematic targeting of medical facilities. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), at least 36 hospitals and clinics have been struck in Gaza since October 2023. International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on medical infrastructure.

READ: UNICEF: Gaza’s infrastructure is completely destroyed

Israel has routinely justified strikes on civilian infrastructure by alleging Hamas presence, but many such claims have been debunked. Investigations have repeatedly contradicted Israel’s accounts, including in the killing of 15 paramedics, the bombing of the Ahli Hospital, and the targeting of journalists and aid workers.

The European Hospital strike is just the latest in a long pattern of discredited Israeli claims — from false accusations against medics and hospitals to fabricated stories about fleeing civilians, humanitarian workers and children. After Israel’s repeated lies about paramedics, white flags, food convoys, and even calling dead children “dolls”, its credibility has collapsed.

As one viral post put it: “But our next lie will be 100% true, trust us.”

Israel: “I know we lied about the ambulance workers, Shifa hospital, flour massacre, beheaded babies, Hamad hospital, Hind Rajab, the ‘terror LIST’ (days of the week), World Central Kitchen workers, babies in ovens, white phosphorus, deliberately starving Gazans, Sinwar…

— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) April 5, 2025

Meanwhile, the human toll continues to mount. The last two months have been the deadliest in Gaza since the early stages of the genocide, with three in five fatalities being women, children, or elderly people, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Israeli strikes on Khan Yunis alone killed over 50 people in one night.

READ: 118 Palestinian killed in Gaza amid Trump’s Gulf visit