America on Wednesday said Israel is not to blame for the Gazahospital slaughter, according to its latest intelligence and open source assessment.
The White House’s National Security Council firmed up a statement earlier in the day from Joe Biden who had pointed the finger at Israel’s foes in the conflict.
Israel is blaming the tragedy on a misfiring rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Adrienne Watson, White House National Security Council spokesperson, tweeted: “While we continue to collect information, our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday.”
Shortly after arriving in Tel Aviv for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president stressed he was “deeply saddened and outraged” by the explosion at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza which is feared to have killed hundreds of people.
“Based on what I have seen, it appears though it was done by the other team, not you,” a frail-looking Mr Biden, 80, told Mr Netanyahu at a joint press conference.
“But there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure, so we have got to overcome a lot of things,” he added, with tensions in the region at boiling point after the hospital horror.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli air strike caused the destruction. But the Israel Defence Forces denied involvement and blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The IDF investigation, made public this morning, included radar reportedly showing 10 rockets fired from a nearby cemetery. The Islamic Jihad group denied responsibility.
Protests erupted in cities across the Middle East and Arab world over the devastating hospital explosion, including in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Iraq and Libya.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan described the destruction of the Al Ahli hospital as “the latest example of Israeli attacks devoid of the most basic human values”.
With Israel being blamed in some media yesterday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly stressed today: “Last night, too many jumped to conclusions around the tragic loss of life at Al Ahli hospital. Getting this wrong would put even more lives at risk.”
The US president touched down at Ben Gurion Airport before 11am (9am UK time) amid the furious blame game and was met on the tarmac by Mr Netanyahu before leaving in a heavily guarded convoy.
At a press conference shortly before midday, Mr Biden gave his strong backing for Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Islamic State-style rampages on October 7, with at least 3,000 more injured, and nearly 200 individuals seized as hostages. Mr Netanyahu thanked the US president for his “unequivocal” backing, which includes providing more military support, with Israel set to launch a ground invasion of Gaza.
John Kirby, a White House national security spokesperson, told reporters aboard Air Force One that Mr Biden “wants to get a sense from the Israelis on the situation on the ground” and will “ask some tough questions”. “He’ll be asking them as a friend,” Mr Kirby added, with Mr Biden expected to urge Israel to seek to limit civilian casualties.
At least 3,000 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since October 7, with another 1,200 people believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said, adding that 10,000 were wounded.
Mr Biden’s Air Force One plane was at Andrews Air Base, near Washington, readying to fly to Israel, when news of the hospital tragedy started to emerge. He stuck to the plan to head to the Middle East in the throes of one of its worst crises.
But amid fury in other countries in the region over the hospital slaughter a subsequent meeting in Jordan with King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was scrapped.
The death toll from the hospital explosion at around 7pm local time was by far the highest of any single incident in Gaza during the current violence.
The Israel Defence Forces this morning held a briefing to insist they were not involved in the hospital tragedy, saying it was a failed rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, with the high number of casualties due to it being still packed with the propellant needed to reach Israel.
The IDF claimed its investigations had found none of its attacks on Gaza hit the hospital, that radars had identified 10 rockets being launched from a nearby cemetery, that there was no crater or structural damage to buildings which are signs of an air strike, and that it had intercept intelligence of two terrorists discussing “rockets misfiring” amid the incident.
Asked to explain the size of the explosion at the site, chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said it was consistent with unspent rocket fuel catching fire. “Most of this damage would have been done due to the propellant, not just the warhead,” he said.
Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for airpower at London-based military think tank RUSI, tweeted: “No crater or obvious shrapnel pattern consistent with standard IAF JDAM/Mk80 series bombs visible in this image.
“Still not conclusive, but IF this is the extent of the damage then I’d say an airstrike looks less likely than a rocket failure causing an explosion and fuel fire.”
The fighting has raised fears of a widening war in the Middle East. The United States has sent aircraft carriers to support Israel, while allies of Hamas including Iran and Tehran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah have vowed to respond to a planned Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Flare-ups on the Israeli-Lebanese border since the Hamas attack on October 7 have been the deadliest in 17 years, killing several Hezbollah fighters, three civilians in Lebanon and at least three Israeli soldiers.
