In a recent turn of events, the United States government, as stated by the National Security Council (NSC), has dismissed Israel's involvement in the tragic blast at a hospital in Gaza. This development follows President Joe Biden's assertion that a Palestinian militant group was responsible for the devastating strike.
Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the NSC, emphasized that the assessment was formulated after a meticulous analysis of various sources, including overhead imagery, intercepts, and open-source information. "While we continue to collect information, our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts, and open-source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday," Watson stated in a release on Wednesday.
According to CNN, separate reports from officials revealed that initial evidence from the US intelligence community pointed to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group as the probable source of the hospital strike. Further analysis of the blast strongly suggests a ground explosion, rather than an airstrike, as the cause of the devastation. Detailed blast analysis indicated no singular crater, hinting at the absence of a bomb, but extensive fire damage and scattered debris consistent with an explosion originating from the ground level, corroborated one of the sources.
Despite this compelling analysis, it's important to note that the intelligence community is considering various data points and has deployed additional resources to the region for enhanced intelligence collection. Consequently, US intelligence officials have refrained from reaching a final conclusion, emphasizing their ongoing efforts to gather further evidence.