President Biden also appeared to have secured Israel’s agreement to allow food, water and medicine for civilians to enter Gaza via Egypt.
As outrage grew over a blast that ripped through Al- Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza, American and Israeli intelligence said early evidence showed the deadly explosion was caused by an errant rocket fired by Palestinian fighters.
Making a rare wartime visit to Israel on Wednesday, President Biden firmly backed the Israeli government’s assertion that it had nothing to do with the hospital’s destruction. “Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” he said, appearing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Tel Aviv.
The evidence American intelligence has gathered includes satellite and other infrared data showing a launch of a rocket or missile from Palestinian fighter positions within Gaza, U.S. officials said. The United States has also analyzed open-source video showing the launch did not come from Israeli military positions. In addition, Israeli officials have provided intercepted communications of Hamas officials saying the strike came from forces aligned with Palestinian militant groups.
Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said on the X social media platform that “our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open-source information, is that Israel is not responsible.”
Mr. Biden also said he had secured Israel’s agreement to allow some international humanitarian aid into the besieged strip, offering the first hint of relief to a humanitarian crisis that has left the strip’s two million residents facing acute shortages of basic necessities. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said Israel would not block the provision of food, water and medicine from Egypt to civilians in southern Gaza, but warned, “Any provisions that reach Hamas will be thwarted.”
There was no immediate comment from the government in Egypt, where emergency supplies are waiting to cross through a key land border with Gaza.
