After Mr Biden backed the Israeli account, other western leaders also called for caution, with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urging for “cool heads”. “Getting this wrong would put even more lives at risk,” he warned.
US officials investigating the explosion at a hospital in Gaza say information gathered so far indicates Israel is “not responsible” for the blast.
The White House National Security Council (NSC) says the “current 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,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson told NBC News.
It comes after Joe Biden said the explosion at the al Ahli hospital – which Hamas officials claimed killed hundreds of people and was caused by an Israeli air strike – appeared not to have been caused by Israel but “by the other team”.
The US president was speaking during a high-risk diplomatic mission to Israel – a day after the blast stoked tensions and sparked protest in the region.
Mr Biden held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Wednesday – trying to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiralling into a broader regional conflict.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Mr Biden said.
“But there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure, so we have got to overcome a lot of things.”
“The world is looking. Israel has a value set like the United States does, and other democracies, and they are looking to see what we are going to do,” he added.
Mr Biden said he was “sad and outraged” by the strike in Gaza which Hamas said killed up to 500 people at the al Ahli hospital – triggering worldwide protests.
Hamas called the explosion a “crime of genocide” and has blamed it on Israel.
Israel has denied any involvement and said the blast was caused by a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group – an Islamist militant group based in Gaza which is smaller than Hamas but shares a similar ideology.
However, it too has rejected responsibility for the explosion.
Two senior American officials told NBC News – the US partner of Sky News – that the US had assessed that a PIJ group had rocket misfired and had hit the hospital.
UK intelligence also assessing explosion
Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, urged for a “calm and cool” approach in response to the blast and urged people: “Don’t rush to premature judgments.”
He told broadcasters: “It is important in this instance not to jump to conclusions, we have to establish the facts and premature speculation, I think, would be wrong, that’s not the right thing.
“This is a very heightened, sensitive situation, so we just need calm heads.”
Mr Sunak said UK intelligence was also assessing the explosion at the hospital.
The blast happened just before the US president arrived in Israel on Wednesday on a desperate diplomatic mission to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiralling into a broader regional conflict.
