On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports,” NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel stated that some of the claims that an Israeli airstrike hit a hospital in Gaza “might be disinformation, if Hamas does, in fact, know that it was an errant fire by a different group,” but part of it “is just people who are in Gaza, under attack, and believed that the Israelis attacked them.” And “It is not an impossible assumption to assume that it came from Israel since Israel is carrying out airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip. Even the Israeli military said that it investigated to see if maybe it was one of its air strikes, that it was an errant fire.”
After Engel noted that President Joe Biden stated that the U.S. military concluded that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, co-host José Díaz-Balart said, “Richard, your thoughts on just how quickly the disinformation and misinformation spread right after that rocket hit the parking lot right outside the hospital in Gaza. It was instantaneous almost, the misinformation and disinformation.”
Engel responded, “Well, it may be misinformation or disinformation from Hamas, but witnesses as well who believe that it was an Israeli air strike because they saw something fall from the sky. They are in Gaza City. They see dead bodies all around them, maybe they’re injured. It is not an impossible assumption to assume that it came from Israel since Israel is carrying out airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip. Even the Israeli military said that it investigated to see if maybe it was one of its air strikes, that it was an errant fire. So, some of it might be disinformation, if Hamas does, in fact, know that it was an errant fire by a different group, then it’s clearly disinformation. The other campaign is just people who are in Gaza, under attack, and believed that the Israelis attacked them.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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