Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called for an “independent investigation” into the Gaza Strip hospital bombing on Monday, continuing her refusal to accept US and Israeli findings that they say show Islamic Jihad terrorists were behind the atrocity.
“Media outlets and third-party analysts have cast doubt on the claims and evidence offered by both Israel and the Gaza Ministry of Health, and I agree with the United Nations that an independent investigation is necessary,” Tlaib said in a statement.
“I cannot uncritically accept Israel’s denial of responsibility as fact, especially in light of the confirmation from the World Health Organization that Israel has bombed many medical facilities in Gaza and reports from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society about continued threats from the Israeli army to evacuate hospitals,” he said.
Hamas claimed last week that an Israeli airstrike killed about 500 people at Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City — sparking riots across the Middle East and forcing President Biden to cancel a planned summit with Arab leaders in Jordan.
The scene inside Al-Ahli hospital after it was hit by a rocket. Telegram An injured person is taken to hospital after hundreds of Palestinians were killed in an explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, in this screenshot obtained from a video on Oct. 17. 2023. Reuters
But both the White House and the Israeli government have determined that the blast was caused by an errant Islamic Jihad rocket fired from the Palestinian border.
Islamic Jihad is a smaller, more radical Palestinian terrorist group that often collaborates with Hamas.
“Both the governments of Israel and the United States have long documented histories of misleading the public about wars and war crimes – such as last year’s Israeli military killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and the false allegations of weapons of mass destruction that led our country into the Iraq War – and cannot absolve themselves of responsibility without an independent international investigation,” added Tlaib. “This debate should not distract us from the urgent need for a ceasefire to save innocent civilian lives.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks at a press conference on the introduction of the “Restaurant Workers Bill of Rights” outside the US Capitol Building on September 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. Getty Images President Biden speaks during an event on the economy, from the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex, Monday, Oct. 23. 2023.AP
The Israeli government has published intercepted phone calls from Gaza and other evidence it says shows its forces were not behind the bombing.
Israeli officials also said that several dozen people lost their lives in the explosion, rather than the 500 or so that Hamas had reported.
“I don’t know all the details, but I know people in the Defense Department that I respect and the intelligence community that I respect, say it’s highly unlikely that Israel did that,” Biden, 80, told reporters last week.
People search through debris outside the Ahli Arab hospital site in central Gaza on Oct. 18. 2023 after an overnight explosion there. AFP via Getty Images
The New York Times, which initially pinned the bombing on Israel, citing Hamas, retracted its report on Monday, admitting it “relied too much” on information from the terror group.
Investigations by the Wall Street Journal, CNN and the Associated Press have also found evidence that the missiles came from a terrorist organization – and not Israel – based on television footage they say appears to show a Palestinian rocket misfiring in the air over a hospital.
Tlaib went on a rampage immediately after the bombing, tweeting, “Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that. [Biden] this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate. Your approach to war and destruction alone has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslim Americans like me. We will remember where you stand.”
Later, at a pro-Palestinian rally outside the US Capitol, the Michigan Democrat doubled down on the Hamas narrative.
“People think it’s OK to bomb hospitals with children,” Tlaib, a member of the far-left “Squad” of congressional Democrats, told the crowd last Wednesday.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
