What Biden has ‘seen’ in Israel after Gaza hospital blast

President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday, where he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the strike that killed hundreds of people in Gaza appeared to come from “the other team” – not from Israel.

“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Mr Biden said during their meeting in Tel Aviv.

His comments come after an explosion hit the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City killing hundreds of people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Palestinian officials blamed Israel for the strike but Israel insisted the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestine Islamic Jihad militant group.

The president’s confident statement that Israel had not caused the strike was met with some backlash as people asked Mr Biden to clarify what he had “seen” that led him to the conclusion.

Reporters from several outlets, including CNN, were also quick to ask Mr Biden what he meant by “the other team” but the president did not respond immediately.

On social media, several people questioned how Mr Biden could make a definitive statement so quickly after the airstrike occurred, especially given how misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict is plentiful online.

Mr Biden later clarified to the White House pool that he made the conclusion after being shown data from the Department of Defense.

As of Wednesday morning, it remains unclear what caused the deadly strike in Gaza. The data that Mr Biden cited is not publicly available and the claims by leaders in Israel and Palestine are unverifiable.

Both Mr Biden as well as other leaders, like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have called for investigations into the airstrike to determine the cause of it.

During his sit-down with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Biden said a lot of other people aren’t sure who caused the airstrike but that they must “overcome a lot of things”.

“The world is looking. Israel has a value set like the United States does, and other democracies, and they are looking to see what we are going to do,” Mr Biden said.