Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar won’t take down posts blaming Israel for Gaza hospital blast despite evidence Hamas misfired rocket

Far-left Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) have stood by social media posts blaming Israel for a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, even after President Biden and other US officials stated that evidence showed Palestinian terror groups were responsible.

“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” Tlaib posted on X at roughly 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, before blaming the president for not helping “to facilitate a ceasefire.”

“Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me,” she added. “We will remember where you stood.”

An hour later, Omar also held Biden responsible for not pushing “an immediate ceasefire to end this slaughter.”

“Bombing a hospital is among the gravest of war crimes,” she said on X. “The IDF reportedly blowing up one of the few places the injured and wounded can seek medical treatment and shelter during a war is horrific.”

Both posts remained up as of noon Wednesday.

Hours earlier, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was “deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion,” adding that it had apparently been “done by the other team.”

However, the US president added that “there’s a lot of people out there not sure, so we’ve got a lot—we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.”

Asked later in the day how he had come to that conclusion, Biden said, “The data I was shown by my Defense Department.” 

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson also tweeted Wednesday morning: “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.”

Video and audio clips released by the Israel Defense Forces officials pointed the finger at Palestinian Islamic Jihad for firing the rocket that hit the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. D​aniel Hagari said intelligence findings proved that the Islamic Jihad rocket failed in flight and caused the explosion.

“According to our intelligence, Hamas checked reports, and itself understood that it was as Islamic Jihad rocket misfired and decided to launch a global media campaign to hide what happened,” Hagari said.

Hamas fired a round of rockets at 6:15 p.m. which were directed at Israel, and Islamic Jihad fired another round at 6:50 p.m., ​he added, noting that the explosion occurred at 6:59 p.m.

The terrorists also admitted that the shrapnel pieces of the missile were “local pieces, and not Israeli shrapnel,” an audio clip translated by the IDF shows.

“They are saying this was Islamic Jihad,” one terrorist is heard saying to another in the clip. “It seems that it was from us, yes.”

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the explosion, which they also said killed at least 500 Palestinians.

Those figures have not been independently confirmed.

The explosion led Arab leaders to cancel a planned summit with Biden in Jordan.

The president told Netanyahu he was appalled by Hamas terrorists who “slaughtered” more than 1,400 people, including 30 Americans, in their surprise Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel — and took nearly 200 hostages, including women and children.

“They have taken scores of people hostage, including children,” Biden said. “You said, ‘Imagine what those children hiding from Hamas were thinking.’ It’s beyond my comprehension to imagine what they were thinking.”

“They have committed evils and atrocities that make ISIS look somewhat more rational,” he added. “Americans are grieving with you, they really are. Americans are worried … because they know this is not an easy field to navigate what you have to do.”

“I wanted to be here today for a simple reason: I want the people of Israel and the people of the world to know where the United States stands…. I wanted to personally come and make that clear,” he concluded.

Netanyahu said the president’s decision to come to the Jewish state was “deeply, deeply moving.”

“I know I speak for all the people of Israel when I say thank you, Mr. President, thank you for standing with Israel today, tomorrow, and always,” the prime minister said.