Ilhan Omar
Ilhan OmarRod Lamkey - CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was quick to blame Israel for an explosion at a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, resulting in fellow Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) firing back and pointing out that the facts are not yet known.

“Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes. The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific,” Omar wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

She called on President Joe Biden “to push for an immediate ceasefire to end this slaughter.”

Wasserman Schultz responded to Omar’s post and said, “Any civilian deaths are tragic. Hamas intentionally murdered 1300 Israelis and took 200 hostages because they are Jewish and want to eradicate Israel.”

“We don't know the facts. You have been training your outrage on the wrong party. We do know that Hamas' hatred is the catalyst,” she added.

Hamas blamed Israel for the explosion at the Ahli Baptist Hospital in central Gaza on Tuesday, claiming as many as 500 people were killed.

However, the IDF Spokesperson officially confirmed on Tuesday night that the IDF did not attack the hospital and that the explosion was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket.

"Following an additional review and cross-examination of the operational and intelligence systems, it is clear that the IDF did not strike the hospital in Gaza," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement.

"The hospital was hit as a result of a failed rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization."

"The terrorist organizations within the Gaza Strip fire indiscriminately toward Israel. Since the beginning of the war, approximately 450 rockets launched toward Israel have fallen within Gaza, endangering and harming the lives of Gazan residents," the statement said.

Omar has a history of anti-Israel statements. Just this week, she caused an uproar and was criticized after she retweeted a photo of dead children and claiming that they died as a result of the IAF's bombing of Gaza. The photo was revealed to be a photo of children who died as a result of the Syrian army's nerve gas bombing.

Before that, Omar seemed to equate the Israeli victims killed by Hamas terrorists and Palestinian Arabs killed in the ongoing Israeli response. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later blasted Omar and the other members of the so-called "Squad", calling their statements on the war between Israel and Hamas “wrong, repugnant, and disgraceful.”

Omar came under fire in 2019 after she suggested on Twitter that Republicans were attacking her at the behest of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

She subsequently issued a half-hearted apology before ultimately deleting the controversial tweets.

More recently, she and other Squad members boycotted President Isaac Herzog’s speech before Congress.