On October 17, around noon Virginia time, a missile allegedly hit a Baptist hospital in Gaza. Almost immediately, many US mainstream news outlets blamed Israel for the attack and claimed “over 500” had been killed.
As reported here, about four hours after the blast, Del. Salam “Sam” Rasoul (D-Roanoke) posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, “Today Israel bombed a hospital and a UN school. War crimes it will never be held accountable for. Over 1000 children dead in 10 days. Sickening.”
Within hours, though, as more evidence came in and was examined, it became clearer that the blast was not from an Israeli rocket strike, but from a failed Hamas missile that dropped on Palestinian territory, hitting the hospital’s parking lot. On October 18, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who has access to classified information as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted “we feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.”
On October 20 and again on October 24 The Roanoke Star reached out to Del. Rasoul for any explanation of his post and why he had not taken it down, since his accusation has been widely debunked. The Roanoke Star also sent a request for comment from two of Rasoul’s fellow Democrats, Roanoke City Councilwoman Trish White-Boyd who is running against David Suetterlein (R) for state Senate, and Lily Franklin, Rasoul’s legislative aide running against Chris Obenshain (R) for the House of Delegates.
No responses have been received.
–Scott Dreyer
