Biden ‘outraged’ by Gaza hospital bombing but doesn’t say who’s responsible

President Biden said Tuesday that he’s “outraged and deeply saddened” by the deadly bombing of a Gaza City hospital, but he refused to blame Islamic Jihad, a smaller, more radical Palestinian terrorist group that often works with Hamas.

Israel claims that an errant missile launched by Islamic Jihad out of Gaza, aimed at the Jewish state, was the cause of the blast at the Al Ahli Arab hospital on Tuesday, which the Gaza Health Ministry says killed at least 500 Palestinians.

Biden, 80, is not accepting Israel’s assessment of the bombing despite speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the incident.  

“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza and the terrible loss of life that resulted,” the president said in a statement.   

“Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and have directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened,” Biden added.

“The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy.”

Netanyahu, 73, asserts that “barbaric terrorists in Gaza” are responsible for the tragedy and not the Israeli military.

“The entire world should know: It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF,” Netanyahu tweeted. “Those who brutally murdered our children also murder their own children.”

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“From the analysis of the operational systems of the IDF, an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed through the vicinity of the hospital when it was hit,” an Israel Defense Force spokesperson said Tuesday.

“According to intelligence information, from several sources we have, the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital.” 

The strike on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital marks the deadliest single incident since the war broke out between Hamas and Israel after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israeli soil by the Gaza-based jihadist group.  

Harrowing images from the hospital show the building engulfed in flames and many women and children wounded.

The blast came just hours before Biden was expected to visit Israel in a show of support.

Hamas called the bombing “a horrific massacre,” claiming it was caused by an Israeli strike. 

Russia and the United Arab Emirates called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after the blast, which sparked protests in the West Bank, Egypt and Turkey. 

Biden had been slated to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi during his trip to the Middle East, but will no longer do so. 

The White House released a statement Tuesday saying that the meeting will be postponed after Abbas announced days of mourning and will be rescheduled. 

“After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and President Sisi of Egypt.

“The President sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. He looks forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon, and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days,” the White House said.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday that Biden will “be asking some tough questions” when he meets with Netanyahu in Israel, but did not specify if any questions would be related to the hospital bombing. 

“He’ll be asking them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel,” Kirby said. 

“By tough questions I don’t mean menacing or in any way adversarial. Just hard questions that a good friend of Israel would ask about where they think they are going, what their plans are going forward,” he added.

On Israel’s claim that Tuesday’s explosion was not caused by an IDF missile, Krby said, “We certainly recognize that they feel very strongly this was not caused by them,” but he refused to say whether thus far in the conflict Israel has been operating under the rules of war. 

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to react, again, to initial reports, one way or the other,” Kirby said, stressing that Biden will continue to press Israel on the “absolute need to protect innocent civilian life and observe the laws of war.”