UN may conduct own investigation into strike on hospital in Gaza

"The UN will certainly want to conduct its own investigation. And it needs to be done very, very swiftly," Griffiths stated.

When asked if he accepts Israel's evidence that Palestinian militants are responsible for the explosion, the Deputy Secretary-General responded, "It's not for me because I don't deal with the assessment of human rights violations and atrocities of that kind."

According to him, the UN's investigation should help draw critical lessons "so that this does not happen again in another hospital, another school, another institution where people take refuge."

Griffiths also reminded that international humanitarian law prohibits airstrikes on civilian objects.

What is known about the strike on the hospital in the Gaza Strip

On the evening of October 17, HAMAS claimed that Israel had struck the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza Strip. The militants alleged about 500 civilian casualties, including hundreds of injured people in the hospital.

Israel, on its part, denied the accusations and stated that it was not involved in the strike on the civilian hospital. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the explosion was the result of a failed launch of an Islamic Jihad rocket.

Also, on October 18, an IDF spokesperson stated that there was no direct strike on the hospital in Gaza. According to the IDF, it was a misfire of an Islamic Jihad rocket that landed not on the hospital but on a nearby parking lot.