TEL AVIV, October 18. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday denied reports that his country was responsible for a strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip, which claimed hundreds of lives.

"The entire world should know: it was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces]," Netanyahu wrote on the X social network, previously known as Twitter. "Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children."

Separately, Netanyahu posted a statement released by the IDF press service earlier in the day and blaming the Islamic Jihad radical group for the attack on the Gaza hospital. The statement blames the deadly attack on Islamic Jihad’s failed rocket launch, citing "intelligence from multiple sources."

Arab media reported that several powerful blasts rocked central districts of Gaza on Tuesday, dealing major damage to a local hospital building. The Al Hadath television attributed the explosions to an air strike delivered by Israel’s Air Force. According to Al Arabiya’s latest casualty report, the number of those killed and injured in the tragedy has exceeded 800.