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- US says intelligence shows Gaza militants were behind hospital blast
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US says intelligence shows Gaza militants were behind hospital blast
Tel Aviv: US officials say their own intelligence shows that the deadly blast at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital on Wednesday was caused by an armed Palestinian group, as the Middle East reels from the aftermath of the explosion.
The intelligence assessment came as US President Joe Biden wrapped up his hasty one-day visit to Israel, which had been complicated by the blast at the hospital that has killed hundreds.
The White House National Security Council said the US assessment was based on analysis of 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,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council.
Palestinian protesters burn pictures that show US President Joe Biden during a protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, at the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, south Lebanon.Credit: AP
Raising fears of wider instability, protesters staged anti-Israeli demonstrations around the Middle East over the fireball that engulfed Al Ahli Arab Hospital late on Tuesday, which Palestinian officials said killed 471 people.
They blamed an Israeli air strike, while Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Gaza Strip’s Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame.
Biden promised more aid to Israel at the end of his impromptu one-day visit to the country, which is bombarding Gaza to try to root out militants from its ruling Hamas group after they killed 1400 Israelis in a cross-border assault on October 7.
He said of the hospital blast: “Based on the information we have seen today, it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”
Arab leaders responded to the loss of life at the hospital, which they blamed on Israel, by cancelling a summit with Biden in Jordan. This had been intended as the second half of his carefully choreographed itinerary for emergency meetings with allies to avert a wider Middle East war.
Read the full report here.
War could fire up neo-Nazis and extremists at home as ASIO also on alert abroad
Palo Alto, California: Australia is on high alert for signs of neo-Nazis and Islamic extremists using the escalating conflict in the Israel-Hamas war for recruitment drives and potential violence, as the nation’s intelligence boss also warned that Russia and China were trying to steal nuclear technology secrets from the AUKUS submarine pact.
In a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the first public gathering of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s director-general of security, Mike Burgess, outlined heightened threats to the nation’s safety both from extremists activated by war in the Middle East and Chinese and Russian state actors seeking an edge in the battle for global supremacy.
ASIO director-general of security Mike Burgess.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Burgess’ warnings about security risks come as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prepares to travel to Washington next week for a state visit after US President Joe Biden returns from a wartime mission to Israel.
While Burgess said he did not at this stage see evidence of extremists planning violence as a result of the war, the threat level in Australia meant it was “possible”.
“We know the neo-Nazis would be looking at this. They have it well planned as part of their awful ideology and they do not like Jewish people – and you know where that goes – so you see them firing up.
“On the other side, you would have people who are going: ‘well, Muslims are being oppressed; this is terrible, I’m feeling bad about that,’ and that might stir up their ideology to think violence is the answer. That’s what we have to look out for.”
Burgess’ comments were made at an intelligence chief’s summit between Australia, the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. The Five Eyes group united in Silicon Valley to publicly accuse China of the most sustained and sophisticated program of intellectual property theft in history.
But the meeting at the Hoover Institute in California on Tuesday (US time) came as Israel is under pressure to explain how its own seasoned spy networks were caught by surprise when thousands of Hamas fighters breached Gaza’s fortified borders by land, sea and air in a wide-ranging killing spree on October 7.
Burgess suggested that it may not have been an intelligence failure at all, but a failure to listen to the intelligence.
“I’m confident they’ll figure it out at the right time – but now is not the right time for them,” he said.
Read the full report here.
Fury across Middle East after Al Ahli Arab Hospital blast
World leaders from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the Al Ahli Arab Hospital blast in statements that nonetheless avoided addressing who was to blame.
The blast unleashed anger across the Middle East.
Lebanese protesters in front of the US embassy on Wednesday night. Demonstrators set the building belonging to the Lebanese security forces, located at the entrance of the embassy, on fire.Credit: Getty
In Lebanon, security forces fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters throwing projectiles near the US embassy north of Beirut. State-sponsored marches were held across Iran, backer of Hamas and Israel’s sworn foe, with demonstrators carrying banners that read “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
Palestinian officials said Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers near Ramallah in the West Bank during widespread protests.
There were new clashes on Israel’s border with Lebanon, part of the deadliest violence between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel since the last all-out war in 2006.
The UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland told the Security Council the hospital blast needed more investigation.
“I fear that we are at the brink of a deep and dangerous abyss that could change the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if not of the Middle East as a whole,” he said.
Read the full report here.
Don’t be consumed by rage, Biden urges Israel
Tel Aviv: US President Joe Biden said the United States would do everything it could to ensure Israel was safe while also urging Israelis not to be consumed by rage, reiterating that the vast majority of Palestinians were not affiliated with Hamas.
The Gaza health ministry said 3478 Palestinians have been killed and 12,065 injured in Israeli air strikes on the besieged enclave since October 7.
Biden said the US would provide $US100 million in new funding for humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“What sets us apart from the terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life,” Biden said. If that was not respected, “then the terrorists win.”
US President Joe Biden meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.Credit: AP
He also said he would ask Congress for an “unprecedented” aid package this week, before flying out of Israel after what ended up being a less than eight-hour visit.
Biden faced intense pressure to secure a clear Israeli commitment to let aid into Gaza from Egypt, to ease the plight of civilians in the small, densely populated coastal enclave.
At the end of his visit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office put out a statement saying Israel would let food, water and medicines reach southern Gaza via Egypt. It reiterated that it would not let aid in from Israel until Hamas released Israeli hostages.
Read the full report here.
US says intelligence shows Gaza militants were behind hospital blast
Tel Aviv: US officials say their own intelligence shows that the deadly blast at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital on Wednesday was caused by an armed Palestinian group, as the Middle East reels from the aftermath of the explosion.
The intelligence assessment came as US President Joe Biden wrapped up his hasty one-day visit to Israel, which had been complicated by the blast at the hospital that has killed hundreds.
The White House National Security Council said the US assessment was based on analysis of 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,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council.
Palestinian protesters burn pictures that show US President Joe Biden during a protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, at the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, south Lebanon.Credit: AP
Raising fears of wider instability, protesters staged anti-Israeli demonstrations around the Middle East over the fireball that engulfed Al Ahli Arab Hospital late on Tuesday, which Palestinian officials said killed 471 people.
They blamed an Israeli air strike, while Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Gaza Strip’s Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame.
Biden promised more aid to Israel at the end of his impromptu one-day visit to the country, which is bombarding Gaza to try to root out militants from its ruling Hamas group after they killed 1400 Israelis in a cross-border assault on October 7.
He said of the hospital blast: “Based on the information we have seen today, it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”
Arab leaders responded to the loss of life at the hospital, which they blamed on Israel, by cancelling a summit with Biden in Jordan. This had been intended as the second half of his carefully choreographed itinerary for emergency meetings with allies to avert a wider Middle East war.
Read the full report here.
Headlines this morning
Good morning, and welcome to day 12 of our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
I’m Liam Mannix and I’ll be helming this live blog for the first half of the day. It’s just gone 10.30pm in Tel Aviv and Gaza City.
A quick summary of the situation at present.
- The explosion at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital on Wednesday remains at the centre of events. Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for the blast; on Thursday, US officials said their intelligence agreed with Israel’s.
- The explosion, which Palestian officials said killed 471 people, ignited protests across the Middle East.
- US President Joe Biden wrapped up a one-day visit to Israel with a promise of more aid for the country.
- In response to the explosion, Arab leaders cancelled a scheduled summit with Biden in Jordan, where the US President was hoping to work towards defusing tensions in the region.
Wounded Palestinians at a hospital following an explosion in Gaza City.Credit: AP
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