US President Joe Biden said he cited “the data I was shown by my defense department,” when asked Wednesday what made him confident Israelis weren’t behind the hospital blast in Gaza City that Palestinian officials say left hundreds dead overnight.
It comes after Biden’s comments on the explosion earlier Wednesday, when he said, “It appears as though it was done by the other team,” during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Before Biden left for Israel, according to one US official, the government had not yet drawn a conclusion about the source of the hospital bombing, and Biden had instructed his national security team to continue evaluating incoming information.
CNN has asked the White House if the US government has further assessed the cause of the blast since the president’s departure.
Authorities in Gaza have said Israel is behind the deadly blast at the hospital, while the Israel Defense Forces said its intelligence showed a “failed rocket launch” by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.
