President Biden, speaking Wednesday during a visit to Israel, said the Gaza hospital strike appeared to come from an “errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza,” echoing the Israel Defense Forces’ stance on the incident. Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said the U.S. government assessed that Israel was “not responsible” for the blast, citing “intelligence, missile activity, overhead imagery, and open-source video and images of the incident.” She added that the United States is working to determine whether Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group, was involved. Palestinian authorities said the strike, which they blamed on Israel, killed 471 people — a death toll the IDF has disputed. On his return flight, Biden said Egypt would allow up to 20 trucks with aid through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza, as the enclave faces an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis. Biden will discuss the U.S. response to developments in Israel and Gaza during an Oval Office address Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, the White House said.
