Intel, defense officials tell senators that Israel did not strike hospital 

U.S. intelligence and defense officials told senators at a classified briefing Wednesday that Israel is not responsible for a blast that reportedly killed hundreds of people at a hospital in Gaza, contradicting earlier media reports and claims from Hamas that an Israeli airstrike caused the carnage. 

Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, also told senators that there is no direct evidence that Iran ordered or had foreknowledge of the attack by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians living near the border with the Gaza Strip, lawmakers say.  

Senators heard from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown and Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. 

The officials told lawmakers about the administration’s efforts to recover American hostages and the U.S. military assets being transferred to Israel.   

Austin ticked off a list of Israel’s defense needs, such as 155 mm artillery shells and interceptors for its Iron Dome missile defense system.  

Republican senators warned them that any foreign aid package requested by President Biden would need to include meaningful changes to immigration law to stem the huge flow of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.  

Biden is reportedly preparing a supplemental spending request that will include up to $100 billion of funding for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and domestic border security.

The blast at al-Ahli Arab hospital, which sparked angry anti-Israel protests across the Middle East, was a top point of discussion during the one-and-a-half-hour briefing in the Senate’s sensitive compartmented information facility.  

“We also discussed the explosion at the hospital and received very compelling evidence that this was an errant missile launched from within Gaza; it was not an Israeli attack of some kind,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) after the briefing. “We have to be careful not to join in with the propaganda that’s promoted by Hamas.” 

Other senators confirmed that account.  

“There is fairly consistent evidence that the attack on the hospital was not Israeli originated,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said the findings were delivered with a “consistent degree of confidence.” 

President Biden told reporters in Tel Aviv earlier Tuesday that Palestinian militants are responsible for the hospital blast, citing intelligence from the Defense Department. 

“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team — not you,” Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a joint event.  

U.S. intelligence analysts have drawn that conclusion from satellite data, intercepted communications between Hamas officials and open-source video.  

Multiple senators say the high-level briefing also knocked down initial reporting that Iran gave the greenlight or had prior knowledge of the surprise attack on Israeli towns outside of Gaza.  

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said Haines “confirmed” what U.S. intelligence officials have been saying anonymously, that there’s no evidence that Iran knew about the attack ahead of time. 

“She confirmed that there was no — as of now — no direct evidence that they had foreknowledge or were involved in planning the attacks,” he said.  

Rounds said “there is no link that we have found that connects” Iran “with the specific planning” of the Hamas attack “or the operation itself.” 

Intelligence and defense officials, however, reiterated that Iran has long provided training and weapons to Hamas. 

“We also were told that almost 100 percent of the funding, weaponry and training that Hamas receives comes from Iran. So Iran is clearly behind Hamas,” he said. 

The senior administration officials did not give the lawmakers any advanced preview of exactly how large a spending package Biden will request for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.