Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said today that an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City last week was not caused by a missile fired by Israel and also questioned the death toll reported by Palestinian officials.

Tajani was commenting on the Oct 17 explosion at Al Ahli hospital, among the most hotly disputed events of the Gaza war.

“We need to avoid the negative impact of propaganda. Because that missile, which was said to have caused 500 deaths — in reality, it was around 50 people — and which inflamed Arab masses in big cities, was not however launched by Israel,” Tajani told the Sky TG24 news channel.

Tajani said the missile had hit the hospital car park and did not say what evidence his comments were based on.

The Gaza health ministry has put the hospital death toll at 471.

An Israeli official said the toll appeared to be “several dozen”. A US intelligence report estimated the number of those killed to be “probably at the low end of the 100 to 300 spectrum”.