White House: Israel not to blame for explosion at Gaza hospital
According to the White House, the US administration does not think that Israel was behind the assault on a Gaza hospital that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians. The explosion on Tuesday night has been the subject of contradictory allegations. Israeli airstrikes were cited as the cause by Hamas leaders in Gaza.
Israel has denied any involvement and has released a flurry of video, audio, and other materials that suggest that Islamic Jihad, another terrorist organization active in Gaza, accidentally fired a missile that caused the explosion. Islamic Jihad rejected the assertion.
“The US government assesses that Israel was not responsible for an explosion that killed hundreds of civilians yesterday at the Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip,” said Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.
“Our assessment is based on available reporting, including intelligence, missile activity, overhead imagery, and open source video and images of the incident,” the official said. According to Watson, who cited intelligence assessments, some Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip thought the explosion was probably the result of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket or missile launch gone awry.
“As the President stated earlier today, the explosion appears to be the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza— and we are continuing to work to corroborate whether it was a failed PIJ rocket,” she added.
US Vice President Joe Biden supported Israel during his short trip to Israel, but he also urged for humanitarian relief for Gaza. Biden said it looked that Israel was not to blame for the hospital explosion and warned Israelis from letting their wrath over the fatal Hamas assault overwhelm them.
Separately, US senators said they heard from senior defense and intelligence officials during a confidential briefing that Israel was not to blame for the hospital explosion in Gaza. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters, “The intelligence community determines that Israel is not to fault for the destruction of the hospital in Gaza. “They think it was a misfired rocket from Gaza-based terrorists,”
The Senate information Committee evaluated information pertaining to the assault on the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner wrote on X earlier on Wednesday. With the use of this intelligence, we are convinced that the explosion was caused by a militant terrorist group’s unsuccessful rocket launch, not an Israeli attack.
