TEL AVIV, October 18. /TASS/. An investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed that the radical group Islamic Jihad was responsible for the attack on a hospital in Gaza City on October 17, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said at a news briefing.

"Israel Defense Forces completed its investigation and confirms that the Islamic Jihad is responsible for the explosion at the hospital in the Gaza Strip," he said.

The IDF spokesman added that at least 450 rockets out of the overall number of rockets launched from Gaza by Hamas since October 7 have landed within the Palestinian enclave. He also pointed to the absence of a rocket crater at the scene of the explosion, of the type usually left by the Israeli military’s standard munitions.

Hagari stated that if the Gaza hospital had actually been hit by an Israeli missile, the weapon would have left a crater on the scene and also would have caused considerable damage to nearby buildings.

Arab media outlets reported on October 17 that Israeli airstrikes on the central part of Gaza City had hit a hospital. The attack killed over 500 people and left hundreds wounded, according to the Palestinian radical group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied responsibility, saying in a statement that the powerful explosion in the Gaza City hospital had resulted from a misfired rocket launched from within the Palestinian enclave. The IDF blamed the Islamic Jihad group for the rocket strike on the hospital.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering rocket attacks on Gaza as well as some districts in Lebanon and Syria.