U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday pledging solidarity in its war against Hamas and backing its account that a blast that killed huge numbers of Palestinians at a Gaza hospital had been caused by militants.

U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday pledging solidarity in its war against Hamas and backing its account that a blast that killed huge numbers of Palestinians at a Gaza hospital had been caused by militants.

The fireball that engulfed the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital delivered some of the most harrowing images yet from a 12-day war, and wrecked White House plans for Biden’s emergency diplomatic mission to the Middle East, with Arab leaders calling off their planned summit with the U.S. president.

Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli air strike for the blast, which it said had killed as many as 500 people. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame.

Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said: “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.”

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
      2814·
      1 year ago

      https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-presents-evidence-misfired-gazan-rocket-caused-hospital-blast-slams-hamas-lies/

      A photo outside the hospital shows some scorched concrete and burnt cars, but no crater or anything you’d really expect from a military bomb. The IDF also supplied intercepted audio of Hamas fighters discussing a botched missile launch:

      “I am telling you this is the first time we see a missile like this falling, and so that’s why we are saying (the rocket) belongs to Palestinian Islamic Jihad…,” says one of the alleged Hamas members.

      “It’s from us?'” asks the second.

      “It looks like it…,” replies the first. “They are saying that the shrapnel from the missile is local shrapnel and not like Israeli shrapnel.”

      “It couldn’t have found another place to explode?” asks the second.

      “They shot it from the cemetery behind the hospital,” says the first, “and it misfired and fell on them.”

      There is also evidence that there was a barrage of rockets fired at around the same time.

      Naturally this is from the IDF, who aren’t unbiased. Speaking only for myself though, I really can’t possibly imagine what Israel would stand to gain from doing this.

      • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.eeEnglish
        2613·
        1 year ago

        I really can’t possibly imagine what Israel would stand to gain from doing this.

        More dead Palestinians.

        You can’t really pretend that’s not one of their goals when they’re always killing as many as possible.

        • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
          1617·
          1 year ago

          If that was their goal, they could depopulate the Gaza Strip in an hour. It’s clearly not the objective, even if they’re not prioritizing minimizing casualties as much as they should.

          Truly, ask yourself what Israel would do if its true aim was “killing as many as possible”. I’m genuine asking you, what do you think they would do if that was the intent, and are they doing those things?

          • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            83·
            1 year ago

            Most genocide expert agrees the modern genocides look nothing like the past ones, and particularly say there will not likely be another genocide like the Holocaust because we literally had a world war and a convention in Geneva about it. If you marker for purposeful ethnic cleansing is that it has to look like the holocaust, you’re going to miss several genocides. If you can’t imagine why Israel would attempt to hide a motive like ‘we want to kill Palestinians because they are Palestinians’ though both words and actions then I don’t know what else to say.

          • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
            139·
            1 year ago

            They would kill as many as they could within the limitations of having to appear they aren’t the aggressor. They are fully dependent on their international reputation.

            • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
              89·
              1 year ago

              within the limitations of having to appear they aren’t the aggressor

              You cannot claim this is something they care about while also claiming that they bombed a hospital for the sole purpose of killing civilians.

              • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
                104·
                1 year ago

                But we can’t prove they did, can we? There’s just enough deniability to squeeze through politically. And that’s all they need. Apparently.

                • Fades@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  23·
                  1 year ago

                  Yes Israel fired a rocket from northern Gaza and caused it to prematurely explode over the hospital to kill Palestinians but also keep plausible deniability

                  Give me a fucking break lmao

          • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            If that was their goal, they could depopulate the Gaza Strip in an hour.

            And if there were no repercussions, they absolutely would.

            But much to their obvious resentment, they need to play the international politics game. If they don’t, they’ll find their economy decimated in much the same way a Russia has. And when the arms deals dry up, they could easily end up on the receiving end, given their unpopularity with their neighbours.

            Truly, ask yourself what Israel would do if its true aim was “killing as many as possible”. I’m genuine asking you, what do you think they would do if that was the intent, and are they doing those things?

            I would keep taking inch after inch, waiting for any excuse to retaliate, and then retaliate as violently and indiscrimately as possible.

            So as a purely hypothetical example, maybe I’d constantly encroach on their borders and bulldoze their homes.

            Maybe I’d imprison and execute children for throwing rocks.

            Maybe when a terrorist cell crossed the border and killed (a fraction as many) civilians, I’d drop an absurd number of bombs on their city, beyond what could possibly be targeting actual combatants, killing scores of civilians and levelling buildings.

            Purely hypothetically of course.

      • BabyWah@lemmy.worldEnglish
        94·
        1 year ago

        Haha, really good source, read their blogs and you can see why and how they’re trying to shift the narrative.

        As a European, I don’t believe anything the US says anymore. Not after decades of deception and disinformation from them.

        • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
          95·
          1 year ago

          Publisher of a claim has no relevance to whether the claim is true or not. A source being biased does not mean that everything they say is false.

          Here’s the BBC, if you like them better.

          https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67144061

          Based on available evidence, it appears the explosion happened in a courtyard which is part of the hospital site. Images of the ground after the blast do not show significant damage to surrounding hospital buildings. What the images do show includes scorch marks and burnt-out cars.

          BBC Verify has shown the evidence to a number of weapons experts, some of whom say it is not consistent with what you would expect from a typical Israeli airstrike.

          J Andres Gannon, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, in the US, says the explosion appears to be small, meaning that the heat generated from the impact may have been caused by leftover rocket fuel rather than an explosion from a warhead.

          Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) in the UK, agrees. While it is difficult to be sure at such an early stage, he says, the evidence looks like the explosion was caused by a failed rocket section hitting the car park and causing a fuel and propellant fire.

          And the cause of the tragedy is this:

          Canon Richard Sewell, the dean of St George’s College in Jerusalem, told the BBC that about 1,000 displaced people were sheltering in the courtyard when it was hit, and about 600 patients and staff were inside the building.

          I agree that we don’t know for sure yet. but I don’t think it can be denied that a plausible story is that a failed rocket crashed into this courtyard that had hundreds of people gathered in it, igniting the rest of the fuel and causing a large explosion.

          Or maybe the IDF really did decide to just bomb a hospital courtyard. That’s plausible, though seems unlikely to me, personally.

          • BabyWah@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            I truly believe Israel did the hit, and the narrative is being shifted around now because they knew they went too far and international backlash might not be in their favour. We’ll find out eventually.

            It’s not about plausibility anymore, they want to turn Gaza into a parking lot, these people are talking about mowing the grass every few years so that explains why the majority of Palestinians is underage.

            But you’re right, I might be biased. Both sides have extremist that are willing to do anything for their cause, but one side has been pushed to the brink with no way out. I’m really not surprised this breeds terrorists/freedom fighters who’d rather die than live like a dog.

            I can only think about the civilians on both sides that died. Children are dying and the next generation of terrorists/freedom fighters/orthodox extremists are being made right as we speak. This cycle of violence has no end.

            And nobody even mentions the hostages anymore. It’s kids paying the price while old white men talk and talk.

            I’m really emotional so not a good place to speak from, and will be reading and following less news the coming weeks, just for my mental health. I don’t want to live in this world anymore.

      • vind@lemmy.worldEnglish
        42·
        1 year ago

        The barrage of rockets were launched around half an hour after the hospital blast according to the video footage.

      • Neuromancer@lemm.eeEnglish
        816·
        1 year ago

        Israel would have claimed it a military target and use that excuse. They have no reason to deny the bombing.

        They have admitted to other bombings in the past such as ambulances because they were valid military targets.

        I see no reason for Israel to lie about this as they have public support right now.

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2010·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, there still seems to be no evidence. I’ve been holding judgement from the start.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        32·
        1 year ago

        There’s too much conflicting evidence for me to be able to say at this point. Has there been news on the supposed Al Jazeera recording of the event that shows an internal launch?