As the world watches the rapidly escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and debates over who was behind bombings that killed hundreds of people in Gaza hospitals, the White House appears to be concluding that Israel is not to blame.
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that “another team” was behind the explosion, citing data shown to him by the U.S. Department of Defense. On Wednesday, a senior U.N. official called on the agency to complete its own investigation, According to CNN.
Biden’s comments were closely watched and came at a delicate moment as the White House balances its many Arab and Middle Eastern allies with its longtime ally Israel. Whose team does the United States belong to, many leaders in the region are asking themselves.
Initial estimates of the death toll at Al Ahli Arab Hospital ranged from 200 to 800, World Health Organization officials said at an emergency press conference late Tuesday. The number of injured is estimated to be in the hundreds. In addition to patients and medical staff, many civilians have taken refuge in and around the hospital in the hope that it will be protected from attack in accordance with international humanitarian law.
Palestinian officials were quick to say it was an Israeli airstrike, but Israel Defense Forces said The intelligence traced the attack to a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.
Biden said the attack appeared to be “the work of another team” during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Wednesday. According to multiple news media reports.
But before Biden left for the meeting, the U.S. government had not yet concluded who was responsible for the bombing. CNN reported Wednesday“, an unnamed US official was quoted as saying. The question of who was behind the attack has major implications, and the Arab world is particularly nervous, with many neighboring countries holding pro-Palestinian protests.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was in mid-air at the organization’s emergency press conference on Tuesday, but expressed “shock and condemnation” through Dr. Michael Ryan, the organization’s executive director of health emergencies, who spoke on his behalf.
But shortly after the attack, Ghebreyesus condemned the incident on Twitter and called for “immediate protection of civilians and health care” and the revocation of Israel’s evacuation order for northern Gaza.
.@World Health Organization Strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in northern Gaza.
Early reports indicated hundreds of deaths and injuries.
We call for the immediate protection of civilians and medical care, and for the revocation of evacuation orders.#NotATarget https://t.co/6I4t99WV03
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 17, 2023
Ahli Arab Hospital is one of 22 hospitals in the northern end of Gaza facing an evacuation order from Israeli forces, an order that the World Health Organization, the United Nations and other agencies have said is impossible to enforce due to insecurity in the area. Factors include the condition of many patients, the lack of ambulances and the lack of alternative accommodation.
In total, hospitals in northern Gaza are treating more than 2,000 patients, World Health Organization officials said on Tuesday. Four Palestinian hospitals have become inoperable due to damage or attacks since the war began on October 7, they said on Wednesday, adding that their Gaza warehouses were now deserted.
“Health workers are having to make impossible choices to ration the few supplies they have left,” the agency said in a tweet on Wednesday, adding that health workers were performing surgeries without anesthetics.
Yesterday, the WHO team in Gaza handed over narcotic drugs and cortisone purchased from the local market to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
These drugs are enough to support 50 surgeries requiring general anesthesia and 500 critically ill patients. … pic.twitter.com/md4d3WQwdr— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) October 18, 2023
The Israeli army on Friday ordered the evacuation of all personnel in northern Gaza within 24 hours in preparation for a large-scale ground attack. As of Wednesday, the offensive had not yet begun. Many speculate that this will not happen before Biden meets with Netanya on Wednesday.
Egypt’s Rafah crossing, the only potential entry point into Gaza, remained closed on Wednesday, preventing thousands of pounds of humanitarian aid from reaching the war-torn region.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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