Analysis suggests discussion between Hamas operatives shared by Israel fabricated

An investigation by Channel 4 News has cast doubt on the authenticity of a discussion between two Hamas operatives in which they assigned blame for the al-Ahli Hospital blast to Islamic Jihad.

The discussion, shared by the Israeli army on Wednesday, purported to be a recording of one Hamas official telling another that the hospital's destruction had come about as a result of a failed rocket firing by the group:

However, an analysis of the recording carried out for the channel research group Earshot said that "though this audio analysis cannot categorically state that the audible dialogue is fake, we can say that the level of manipulation required to edit these two voices together disqualifies it as a source of credible evidence".

The analysis bolstered an earlier claim by a number of Arab journalists to the channel that the recording was "fabricated" because the "language, accent, dialect, syntax and tone – none of which is, they say, credible".