US intel shows Israel not to blame for hospital strike
Bodies of Palestinians killed by an explosion at the Ahli Arab hospital are gathered in the front yard of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, October 17, 2023. PHOTO | COURTESY
Washington. US intelligence shows Israel was not to blame for a strike on a Gaza hospital, the White House said Wednesday, as President Joe Biden said it appeared to be the result of an "errant rocket" fired by a "terrorist group."
"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," National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on social media.
Biden, in Tel Aviv earlier during a short visit to show solidarity to Israel after the October 7 Hamas attacks, told reporters that "based on the information we've seen to date, it appears as a result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza."
He said the assessment relied on "data I was shown by my defense department."
The Palestinian militant group Hamas said after the explosion on Tuesday that the damage to the hospital came from an Israeli air strike. The Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said it killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Israel has said the Islamic Jihad militant group had caused the explosion with a misfired rocket.
