No, this video doesn’t show a 'Hamas missile’ hitting the hospital in Gaza

On October 17, 2023, an airstrike hit the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. CNN reported, quoting the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, that the hospital was situated in the center of Gaza City and sheltered people who had been forcibly evacuated. Associated Press reported that allegations have been made about the attack by both sides, with Hamas blaming Israel for the air strike, while Israel claimed that it had been caused by a rocket misfired by other Palestinian militants.

What is the claim?
One viral video shows footage of a missile fired in the sky. Social media users claimed that it showed a Hamas missile hitting the hospital in Gaza. An X user who shared the video wrote, "Nothing is more clear than that!!! A Hamas missile hits the hospital in Gaza..." Another user said, "The missile on the hospital in Gaza was a missile from Gaza aiming to the population in Israel, but accidentally fell inside the Gaza, and unfortunately hit the hospital." A Facebook user wrote, "A failed launch of a missile by Hamas hits a hospital in Gaza." The archives to the links are here and here.

Screenshot of claim circulating online (Source: X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

What's the truth?

Using a reverse image search, we found that the video had been posted to social media in August 2022. Israeli journalist Itay Blumental, a military correspondent according to his X bio, posted the video on the platform on August 7, 2022, writing in Hebrew, "This is how it looks like a failed launch of the Islamic Jihad into the Gaza Strip."  (Translated by Google translate).

Similarly, a senior diplomatic commentator at the Israeli national Hebrew-language newspaper Israel Hayom, Ariel Kahana, also posted the video on X on August 7, 2022, and wrote: “The rocket is fired from #Jeblia camp in the Gaza Strip, goes up and then falls and blows up within the buildings.”

The video was shared by journalists on X in August 2022. (Source: X/Screenshot)

A local partner of The Times of Israel in Australia, The Australian Jewish News, published an article on the attack on August 7, 2022, and shared a still from the viral video. They captioned it: "Still from a video said to show a rocket fired from Gaza in a failed launch that skewed back and blew up inside the Strip, August 6, 2022." The report, which also carried an X post by Israeli military affairs journalist Noam Amir with the video, noted that there was no confirmation of who had launched the rocket and added that the strike hit a home in the Jabaliya refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killing civilians and children. The report also said that Israeli military officials claimed it had unequivocally been proven “that this is the failed shot of a rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad” in Palestine.

Spanish-language Jewish paper Semanario Hebreo also published a report on August 6, 2022, and shared a screenshot of the video saying, "An Islamic Jihad rocket deviated and hit a house." 

We could not independently verify that the viral video shows the rocket fired in Gaza’s Jabaliya and who was behind the attack. However, as the video dates back to at least August 2022, it clearly predates the ongoing war.

The verdict

An old video, reportedly showing a rocket that hit a refugee camp in Gaza in August 2022, is being shared as a missile attack by Hamas on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.