U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar has faced significant blowback after she blamed Israel for an explosion at a Gaza hospital.
Omar cited an Associated Press report to back up her claim, which in turn relied on “the Gaza Health Ministry.” According to The New York Times, the health ministry is run by Hamas, the terrorist organization that started the war when it invaded Israel Oct. 7.
“Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes. The [Israel Defense Forces] reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific,” Omar said, urging President Joe Biden to “push for an immediate ceasefire.”
Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes. The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific.@POTUS needs to push for an immediate ceasefire to end this slaughter. https://t.co/dPJ48dyDe8
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 17, 2023
For his part, Biden has said the information he’s been provided with suggests “the other team” was responsible for the blast. According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. government has gathered “high confidence” intelligence pointing to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as the culprit. Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said the Senate Intelligence Committee reviewed information related to the explosion and feels “confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee reviewed intelligence related to the attack on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Based on this information, we feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) October 18, 2023
The Israeli government has also released evidence that it says shows a misfired Palestinian rocket was responsible, The Washington Free Beacon reported.
“Yesterday, in the immediate wake of the deadly explosion at the al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza, Ilhan reflexively rushed to blame Israel. The original source of her information was provided by the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas, who just 10 days earlier slaughtered 1,400 Israelis and at least 30 Americans,” Dalia al-Aqidi, a Republican challenger to Omar, said in a statement Wednesday.
“I condemn Ilhan Omar’s decision to parrot the terrorist talking points of Hamas that put American lives in danger and feed the flames of extremism and intolerance in our district and across the globe,” she added.
Omar acknowledged in a follow-up post Wednesday night on X, formerly Twitter, that “the IDF denied responsibility and the U.S. intelligence assessment is that this was not done by Israel.”
She then called for a “fully independent investigation to determine conclusively who is responsible for this war crime.”
“It is a reminder that information is often unreliable and disputed in the fog of war (especially on Twitter where misinformation is rampant),” she said. “We all have a responsibility to ensure information we are sharing is from credible sources and to acknowledge as new reports come in.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
