President Biden Says Israel Didn't Fire Missile into Gaza Hospital that Killed Hundreds
Gaza Hospital Bombing President Biden Says Israel Did Not Fire Missile in Gaza Hospital ... Hundreds Killed in Blast
President Joe Biden is siding with Israel over the bombing Tuesday that killed hundreds of people in a Gaza hospital ... claiming it was not Israel that unleashed the weapon.
Israeli intelligence officers said Tuesday's rocket attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was the work of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) -- an independent Muslim paramilitary organization. They said the jihadists were launching rockets at Israel and one of them misfired and came crashing down on the medical center.
Coupled with the footage, Israeli officials released a purported audio clip of two Hamas terrorists talking about the deadly explosion and blaming PIJ. Hamas, which controls the Palestinians in Gaza, has a tense relationship with PIJ, but the two groups sometimes work together.
In the audio clip, one alleged terrorist says, "They are saying (the rocket) belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It's from us?"
The other responds, "It looks like it. It misfired and fell on them... God bless - couldn't it have found another place to explode?"
However, the Palestinian Health Ministry issued a statement, saying Israeli airstrikes were responsible for the bombing at the medical facility, which was housing thousands of displaced people from the war.
Death tolls from the hospital blast ranged from 200 to 500 people, depending on which side you asked.
Major protests throughout the Middle East flared up as a result of the hospital attack. Hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators took to the streets in Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon.
President Biden flew on Air Force One into Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden was also supposed to attend a summit with Egyptian, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders, but Jordan's King Abdullah abruptly canceled it.