The United States says intelligence suggests Israel is \u201cnot responsible\u201d for a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday echoing Israel\u2019s explanation that the blast was likely caused by an \u201cerrant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hundreds of people were likely killed in Tuesday\u2019s blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the center of Gaza City, where thousands were sheltering, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Palestinian officials have blamed Israeli airstrikes for the massive loss of life, but Israel has insisted it was not responsible. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the US National Security Council (NSC) said it had analyzed overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information. It found that \u201cIsrael is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,\u201d NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Among the evidence that\u2019s been gathered is a blast analysis that suggests it was a ground explosion rather than an airstrike that hit the hospital, one of the sources said. There was no singular crater suggesting there was a bomb, but there was extensive fire damage and scattered debris that is consistent with an explosion starting from the ground level, according to the source. <\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had previously accused Palestinian Islamic Jihad of causing the explosion when one of its rockets launched at Israel misfired. In a televised news conference, the IDF said it had intelligence of \u201ccommunications between terrorists\u201d of rockets misfiring, which included mention of the hospital. <\/p>\n
Islamic Jihad denied Israel\u2019s assertions describing them as \u201cfalse and baseless\u201d and claimed it does not use public facilities such as hospitals for military purposes, according to a statement Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The NSC assessment came as Biden made a wartime visit to Tel Aviv in his most forceful public show of support for Israel since the brutal October 7 Hamas attacks, in which the Islamist militant group killed at least 1,400 people and took more than 150 hostages, including children and the elderly. <\/p>\n
Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a meeting on Wednesday that the hospital attack \u201cappears as though it was done by the other team, not you.\u201d <\/p>\n
The competing narratives on what caused the blast comes at a dangerous new phase in Israel\u2019s war with Hamas, which threatens to spill over regionally as growing anger saw protests erupt across the Middle East on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
It has also added to fears that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is spiraling \u201cout of control.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza, described \u201cunparalleled and indescribable\u201d scenes after the blast. <\/p>\n
\u201cAmbulance crews are still removing body parts as most of the victims are children and women,\u201d Al-Qudra said. \u201cDoctors were performing surgeries on the ground and in the corridors, some of them without anesthesia.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look over there on the roads, there are body parts all over it, heads and hands of people, hands and brains of children,\u201d said Adnan, who would give only his first name. \u201cIt is truly indescribable.\u201d <\/p>\n