Biden: It Appears Gaza Hospital Was Hit by 'the Other Team'

President Biden appeared Wednesday at a joint press conference in Tel Aviv with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and spoke about the blast at a Gaza Strip hospital—an event that has thrown the region into further turmoil. The Palestinian Health Ministry called it a "targeted" bombing of al-Ahli Baptist Hospital carried out by Israel and claimed 471 people were killed; Israel said a misfired rocket from a Palestinian militant group hit the hospital's parking lot. Biden indicated he believed Israel was not to blame. The latest:

• Biden to Netanyahu: "Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we've got to overcome a lot of things."

• Israel's "clear evidence": The Wall Street Journal reports Israeli military rep Daniel Hagari on Wednesday said they had "clear evidence"—including an intercepted call and images—that a rocket fired by the Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Gaza, was to blame. He said those images show the damage was not to the hospital, but to an adjacent parking lot where Gazans were seeking shelter. As Reuters puts it, "Israel military steps up denial it hit Gaza hospital, says building undamaged."
• More: Hagari said that had an Israeli rocket hit the site a sizable crater would have resulted; he said no such crater is present and an internal review confirmed no Israeli fire from the air, land, or sea occurred near the hospital at the time. He said the blast that did occur could be attributed to unspent rocket fuel catching fire, reports Reuters. "Most of this damage would have been done due to the propellant, not just the warhead."
• Who Israel blames: Hagari cited Israeli radar data and intelligence showing the Islamic Jihad was firing rockets from a cemetery near the hospital at the time and misfired. Hagari said the intercepted call showed that Hamas knew the Islamic Jihad was responsible but "decided to immediately launch a media campaign to blame Israel," as the Journal puts it. Israel claims Hamas consciously inflated the death toll as well.

• Witness account: The AP spoke with a displaced Gaza resident who says he and his family had sought refuge at the hospital, thinking they'd be safe there. Mohammed al-Hayek says that just before the blast he was sitting with a group of men on a set of stairs and left to get the group coffee. "When I returned, they were torn to pieces."
• Protests erupt: But as the AP writes, "There was no doubt among the Arab protesters who gathered in several countries late Tuesday to condemn what they saw as an Israeli atrocity." NBC News reports protests are surging in the Middle East, with thousands gathered outside the US Embassy in London and the Israeli consulate in Istanbul.
• Diplomatic turmoil: At NBC News, Keir Simmons writes the hospital blast could prove problematic for US diplomatic efforts, explaining, "The United Arab Emirates is a close US ally and signatory to the Abraham Accords that built bridges with Israel. Overnight, the Gulf state strongly condemned what it called the 'Israeli attack that targeted Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital,' despite Israel denying responsibility and blaming Palestinian militants."

(More Israel-Hamas war stories.)