Joe Biden Says Gaza Hospital Blast Not Carried Out by Israel

President Joe Biden has said the Tuesday evening strike on a Gaza Strip hospital thought to have killed hundreds was not caused by Israel, as Palestinian and Israeli officials continue to blame each other for the incident that has scuppered Biden's planned Middle East diplomatic campaign.

Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday morning amid the fallout of the explosion at the al-Ahli Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that some 500 people—many of them displaced under an Israeli evacuation order—were killed in the explosion.

Palestinian militants and officials said the cause was an Israeli airstrike, while Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed an errant rocket fired from Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

Newsweek has contacted the White House via email for comment.

Speaking at a Tel Aviv press conference with Netanyahu on Wednesday morning, Biden said he was "deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday."

"Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we have to overcome a lot of things."

Hamas, Biden said, has "committed evil atrocities that make ISIS look somewhat rational." He added: "We have to also bear in mind that Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people and has brought them only suffering."

A Hamas spokesperson told Newsweek that the group intends to produce evidence that Israel was behind the hospital attack, and said the White House bears shared responsibility for the disaster.

"The American administration is a direct partner with the Israeli occupation in these massacres because of the financial, political and military support it provides to it, and a cover to continue committing them," Fawzi Barhoum said.

"The attempt by the American president and the occupation Prime Minister Netanyahu to describe Hamas as ISIS is an attempt to demonize Hamas and distort its reputation in order to convince the world to stand against Hamas. Hamas defends our people with legitimate resistance, and this is our right to defend our people and liberate our land."

The president's visit to Israel is intended as a show of solidarity with the close U.S. ally following the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. Hamas' "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" launched on October 7 has killed more than 1,400 people, with an estimated 200 others believed to have been taken back into the Gaza Strip as hostages. Among the dead are at least 30 Americans, with another 13 thought to be among the missing.

But Biden has also vowed "tough questions" for Netanyahu as Israel wages an unprecedented land, sea, and air bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip and its 2.3 million people, ahead of a planned major ground offensive designed to "crush and destroy" Hamas, in the prime minister's words.

Israeli strikes have already killed more than 3,000 Palestinians since October 7, and displaced around 1 million people according to the United Nations. The ferocity of the Israeli bombardment has infuriated the Muslim world and prompted calls for restraint among Israel's Western partners.

The carnage at the al-Ahli Hospital has further escalated the crisis, sparking major protests across the region despite IDF denials of responsibility.

Biden's planned summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas—which was to be hosted by Jordanian King Abdullah II in Amman, Jordan—was canceled in the hours after the hospital explosion.

The Jordanian monarch said the incident was a "shame on humanity" and called for an end to Israel's Gaza campaign.

Update 10/18/2023 9 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and comment from Hamas.

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