Joe Biden tells Israel 'other team' appears to be behind deadly hospital explosion

[Jose Garcia]

Source: Financial Times

Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the deadly explosion in a Gaza hospital appeared to have been caused by Palestinians, not the Israeli military, as outrage and mutual accusations fanned across the Middle East.

Appearing with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, the US president sided with accounts that blamed the blast on a misfired rocket by Palestinian militants, rather than an Israeli airstrike.

“Based what I have seen, it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said. “But there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure. So we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.”

It has not been possible to independently verify the death toll or the cause of the explosion, one of the bloodiest events so far in the war, which began with a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.


Read more: https://www.ft.com/content/3168166a-4d0b-429f-88b4-be8d6dd36db9

[ForgoTheConsequence]

1. Other team?

This isn't teams, sir. It's not football, it's real life.

Link to tweet

[IronLionZion]

6. Telling people to evacuate a hospital is still easier said than done

they need a place to go and a way to safely transport the people and equipment.

[Happy Hoosier]

8. And maybe don;t launch shotty rockets...

from a cemetary behind a hospital so failed rockets fall on the hospital.

[FVZA_Colonel]

12. Maybe Israel shouldn't be bombing medical sites

Like they’ve done 11 times in the past ten days

[Happy Hoosier]

14. "bombing medical sites"

You seem portray that as Israel deliberately targeting protected sites because they are just barabrians, apparently.

BULLSHIT.

Hamas has a long history of co-locating military assets with normally protected sites and buildings with the express purpose of forcing Israel to attack such sites.

But no... you don't mention THAT at all.

I should point out too that Israel tends to own such strikes and tries to justify them rather than deny them.

[Cha]

50. Maybe those who are Blaming Isreael Should

get Their FACTS Straight and Not believe FUCKING HAMAS.

[RocRizzo55]

64. The first casualty of war is TRUTH

People need to understand this, and not just believe one side of the war, regardless of where it comes from.

[spike jones]

7. American armed forces refer to themselves as teams all the time. See below. Get a grip.

[JohnSJ]

10. Also, I think he intentionally did not want to use the term terrorist to not inflame the situation

more while hostages are held.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

28. I have a grip.

Acquire some compassion and maybe some analytical skills.

[wnylib]

52. Compassion for Hamas? For their lies that inflame people?

This is my take on compassion for Palestinian civilians. I have compassion for their losses, and for their vulnerability being stuck between Hamas and the Israeli army in this war initiated by Hamas

I have compassion for the Palestinian civilians who go to mosques where Hamas stores explosives, who send their children to schools where Hamas stores explosives, who live in housing where Hamas sets up military commands and offices.

I have compassion for Palestinian civilians who have been confined to Gaza because Hamas made so many terrorist attacks in Israel that Israel had to close off the border for their own security.

I have compassion for Palestinian civilians who suffer destruction of buildings and property when Hamas rockets launched toward Israel fail and fall on Palestinian people and buildings. The incident at the hospital was not the first time that a Hamas rocket crashed within Palestine and failed to launch at Israel. There have been several hundred Hamas rocket failures within the borders of Gaza.

I have contempt for Hamas for their total disregard of the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians. Hamas does not represent or protect Palestinian civilians. Hamas does not exist for the purpose of improving Palestinian life. Hamas exists for power for themselves. They use Palestinians to hold and increase that power.

When people promote the Hamas propaganda about Israel being responsible for the failure of a Hamas rocket, they are not helping Palestinuan civilians. They are helping Hamas to risk the lives of civilians in Gaza.

The anger over the hospital explosion is misdirected. People who give a damn about peace and about Palestinian lives need to recognize that Hamas is the enemy. It is Hamas that is promoting violence. It is Hamas that made it necessary for Israel to close off access of Palestinians to Israel. It is Hamas that is holding back Palestinians from having better lives.

One consequence of the Hamas lies about the hospital destruction is that a conference was cancelled which would have focused on humanitarian relief among Palestinian civilians.

[TheRealNorth]

32. Some people won't be happy....

Unless Biden in parroting the Israeli narrative.

[harumph]

3. One of those instances of awkward phrasing that comes with age.

No doubt it's cringe inducing but best to just move on. It's embarrassing but not repulsive, e.g., calling Hezbollah "smart."
I'm not one of those "Joe is too old..." folks. Whatever the case, Joe is our only hope.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

44. NO.

It wasn't awkward or embarrassing.

[Novara]

4. Israel has been known to lie

Both are blaming each other. Assigning blame is premature and Biden should know better.

Stop kissing Israel's ass. Quit publicly taking sides as if it's a football game. Jeebus.

[former9thward]

9. The U.S. has spy satellites.

They know who is responsible. And it was not Israel.

[FVZA_Colonel]

11. Or the US is lying

As it has done whenever Israel needed its back during their genocide of the Palestinians.

[Jose Garcia]

16. Genocide? The Palestinian population has almost doubled since 1990

[JohnSJ]

18. That word is recklessly used by some. The Hamas charter explicitly calls for the extermination

of all Jews, but of course that is conveniently ignored

[FVZA_Colonel]

21. No, it's not recklessly used,

It’s exactly what Israel has been doing. Ethnic cleansing is genocidal.

[JohnSJ]

22. No they haven't. But your bias is so much anti-Israeli, I suspect if neutral UN experts were able

to safely get in there and determine the explosive signature, you would not believe it if it showed it did not involve Israel.

The U.S. intelligence spy satellites showed a rocket misfiring within Gaza near the hospital at the time the explosion occurred

You will believe what you want to believe, regardless of the evidence

[FVZA_Colonel]

23. You are openly denying a genocide

Israel has been ethnically cleansing the West Bank since 1967 and is doing so to Gaza now.

And there is no way US Intelligence would lie about something!

[JohnSJ]

27. You have just given yourself away. 1967 just happens to be when the Arab countries told the

Palestinians not to accept any peace agreement with Israel, because they were going to destroy Israel, and had their troops from Egypt, Jordan, Syria etc. poised to attack.

Israel countered that, and pushed them back, and as a result, capture the Golan heights where Syria had been launching missiles into Israel, and Jerusalem, where Jews previously were not allowed in.

It was the 6 days war, and as a result of that war, Israel was successful, and as a result of that war they gained territory, because that is the result of war.

[RocRizzo55]

66. The 1988 document, not the revised 2017 document

[FVZA_Colonel]

19. Ethnic cleansing is a genocide, and is exactly what has been done to the Palestinians

[Jose Garcia]

26. Gaza's population was 1.1 million in 2000. Now it is 2.1 million

That doesn't seem to ve very effective ethnic cleansing.

[EX500rider]

38. Yes, at that rate it's going to take awhile...lol

[Mz Pip]

41. But what Hamas vows isn't?

The total destruction of Israel sounds like genocide to me.

[RocRizzo55]

67. 1988 document, not the revised 2017 document

[SlimJimmy]

42. What part of "Their population is growing" do you not understand?

As others have said, you can't have a genocide when that same population is growing.

[Big Blue Marble]

55. You are totally wrong. I suggest you seek a deeper understanding of this horrible crime.

For instance,, what Hama did on Oct 7 was genocide.

[SlimJimmy]

59. I understand the concept of genocide quite well.

What Israel has done and is doing in Gaza never was and never will be genocide.

[Big Blue Marble]

60. Then you contradict yourself .

Either you do not know the full history of the area or the last 75 years or you are choosing to
only present one side. either way here is the definition. You do not have to kill everybody
in the group for it to be genocide..

"Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people[a] in whole or in part. In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.[1][2]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

And Israel's Finance Minister Smotrich quote stands out as to the intention of the Israeli right
wing and militant settlers. who are running the government these days,

“ flood(ing), simply so, the areas of Judea and Samaria with settlements and Jewish settlers. When this happens, the Palestinians are supposed to understand that they have no chance to get a state of their own and they would have to choose between one of the three options – a life of subjugation under Israeli rule, emigration or a Shahid [martyr] death”.[43]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezalel_Smotrich

[SlimJimmy]

61. What I said. The last time I checked Israel wasn't kidnapping little kids, or

creating mental anguish for the Palestinians. (Hamas is doing that to them)

" ... preventing births,

[Big Blue Marble]

62. Check again.

Your ignorance is on display. Israel creates mental anguish for Palestinians every day, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. Hundreds of children are sent to prison,. Many are held in prison without being charged..

“Each year approximately 500-700 Palestinian children are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system. The most common charge is stone throwing, for which the maximum sentence is 20 years. Currently, more than 190 Palestinian children remain in detention in Israeli prisons, the majority of whom, like Ahmed, are in pre-trial detention and have not been convicted of any offence. This is despite calls by the United Nations to release them before the coronavirus spreads.”

https://www.savethechildren.net/blog/what-it-means-be-palestinian-child-israeli-prison-coronavirus-times

[SlimJimmy]

63. Hamas uses them as human shields and refuses to let them leave Gaza.

Even if they could leave, no other Arab nation will take Palestinian refugees. So who exactly is causing the mental anguish?

[RocRizzo55]

68. No they have not

They have been killing them.

[SlimJimmy]

72. Are these the same kids you spoke of here prior to October 7th?

You know, Israeli kids. That's what I thought.

[Cha]

49. Fucking HAMAS wants to do it to Israel.

[Butterflylady]

53. Of course it's doubled, the population of the world has doubled.

[Big Blue Marble]

54. You do not have to kill all everyone in a group to commit genocide.

"Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people[a] in whole or in part. In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

A very insensitive remark.

[Cha]

47. Are you calling Pres Biden a "Liar"?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

51. You apparently have no clue what genocide really is.

on that note, welcome to ignore.

[JohnSJ]

17. That is the information the President was using from our intelligence, not Israels. I suspect even

if they were able to get a neutral expert safety in to view the signature, many people would be unconvinced because of their personal biases

[FVZA_Colonel]

20. And why should we trust American Intelligence?

[JohnSJ]

24. and why should we believe Hamas and Islamic Jihad?

[FVZA_Colonel]

25. What's your opinion on the Iraq War?

Because you absolutely would have gone right along with it

[The Magistrate]

30. At the Risk, Sir, Of Breaking Your Sweet Summer Mind

Like a great many on the left, I viewed the invasion of Iraq as folly pushed to the point of criminal atrocity.

Which is exactly how I, and a great many others on the left, view the 'resistance' of Hamas.

[JohnSJ]

31. No I didn't. Do you think Israel has a right to exist?

[Cha]

48. you didn't answer the question.. why should we believe Butchering HAMAS?

[Cha]

58. Well that shows how much

you don't know about what you're accusing the poster of "going along with".

I know for a fact that he didn't.

That's insulting to Dems and makes no sense.

[EX500rider]

35. Photo of the blast site on BBC seem way to small for a IDF 500lb or 1000lb bomb

Crater is way too small

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

.webp

[sarisataka]

36. That is not a crater from a 500 lb bomb

Nor anything larger. I have seen many, a 500 lb bomb crater I pavement would be closer to 2m across.

[EX500rider]

37. Yesh I agree, looks more in the 50 to 100lb range of explosives.

But I doubt it will sway people who have already made up their minds.

[sarisataka]

39. Yes, there are still people blaming Israel

Even as Aljazeera is walking back the blame.

I have yet to see one person who claims both sides lie call out a lie from the "other" side.

[sarisataka]

33. Biden is kissing Israel's ass?

Wow.

[sarisataka]

70. Are you sure you are on the right site

Or for the right reasons?

[MorbidButterflyTat]

45. NO

YOU should know better.

[Beastly Boy]

46. DOD has been known to lie too.

But neither DOD nor Israel have been known to parrot each other's lies.

Pentagon independently concluded Islamic Jihad responsible for hospital blast

President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter in Israel on Wednesday what made him confident that the Israelis weren't behind the explosion that killed hundreds at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday.

Biden responded that it was "the data I was shown by my Defense Department."

Two U.S. officials told ABC News the Pentagon independently concluded the Gaza hospital blast was likely caused by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that fell short of its target.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/israel-gaza-live-updates/pentagon-independently-concluded-islamic-jihad-responsible-for-hospital-blast-104070319?id=104049894

Must be just a coincidence that their lies are nearly identical. It is not possible that they independently arrived at identical conclusion because of the underlying facts, right?

[Cha]

57. Pres Joe Biden is NOT "kissing anyone's ass".

&t=60s

GD FUCKINg HAMAS is Known to Butcher babies and LIE their fucked UP heads OFF.

[sarisataka]

71. Your veil is thinner than Salome's

[spike jones]

5. Seal Team Six.

US Air Force our team.
https://www.airforce.com/thunderbirds/our-team

Navy Team One
https://media.defense.gov/2020/Jul/26/2002464371/-1/-1/1/ONE_NAVY_TEAM_2016.PDF

[HUAJIAO]

13. Not the same as calling the 'enemy' the other team, like it's a soccer match.

[TygrBright]

29. Very misleading headline. Pentagon data explicitly interpreted as Islamic Jihad targeting error. n/t

[comradebillyboy]

34. And the last I heard Islamic Jihad doesn't work for the IDF or

American intel agencies.

[EX500rider]

40. No, but IDF & US assets both listen in to their comms and watch from satellites

[LiberaBlueDem]

43. Glad to see everyone upset a hospital was damaged

At least there is one thing we can all agree is bad in wars.

[DallasNE]

56. Explosion Was Too Powerful

For a misfired rocket. But, perhaps, a powerful secondary explosion took place. Still too early to call, in my view. Fog or war?