The US government believes that Israel was not responsible for the attack on a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of people, the White House said on Wednesday. This comes amid conflicting claims about who was behind the explosion on Tuesday night. Hamas officials in Gaza have blamed an Israeli airstrike.
Israel has denied any role and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that claims show the blast was instead due to a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.
“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,” White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.
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.— Adrienne Watson (@NSC_Spox) October 18, 2023
“Our assessment is based on available reporting, including intelligence, missile activity, overhead imagery, and open source video and images of the incident,” she said. Citing intelligence reports, Watson said some Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip believed that the explosion was likely caused by an errant rocket or missile launch carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
“As the President said 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 said.
During his brief visit to Israel, US President Joe Biden lent support to Israel but at the same time pushed for humanitarian aid for Gaza. Biden said the hospital blast appeared not to be Israel’s fault, and he cautioned Israelis not to allow outrage over the deadly Hamas attack to consume them.
Separately, US senators who attended a classified briefing with top defence, intelligence officials said they were briefed that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast in Gaza. “The intelligence community assesses that Israel is not to blame for the explosion of the hospital in Gaza,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “They believe it was an errant rocket from terrorists in Gaza.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner wrote on X, “The Senate Intelligence Committee reviewed intelligence related to the attack on al-Ahli hospital in Gaza. Based on this information, we feel confident that the explosion was the result of a failed rocket launch by militant terrorists and not the result of an Israeli airstrike.”
(With agency inputs)