Analysis indicated "that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit," the military said in a statement issued more than two hours after the deadly explosion.

Arab governments immediately blamed Israel, 11 days into a war between Israel and Gaza-based Hamas militants who attacked southern Israel on October 7.

According to the Israeli army, "intelligence from multiple sources we have... indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza."

The Gaza-based militant group has claimed to be fighting Israel alongside Hamas, which rules the coastal Palestinian enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged in a statement that "it was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF (Israel Defense Forces)."

Neither Islamic Jihad nor Israel has claimed the Palestinian group was involved in the October 7 attack, under cover of rocket fire, against Israeli communities near the Gaza border.

Violence since then has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, and about 3,000 in Gaza, according to official figures.