Cut deep anywhere in the world, but it cuts deeper here in israel. October 7th, which was sacred, a Sacred Jewish Holiday became the deadliest day for the jewish people since the holocaust. It has brought to the surface painful memories and scars left by millennia antisemitism and the genocide of the jewish people. The world watched then. It knew, and the world did nothing. We will not stand by and do nothing again, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. President joe bidens trip was more than what you saw, a powerful, tangible, reaffirmation of the strength and durability of the u. S. israeli alliance. It was also a pblem solving diplomatic endeavor, one that has already yielded actual tangible results. The president announced earlier that the u. S. Would provide 100 million in humanitarian assistance for palestinians in gaza and the west bank, that money goes towards things like clean water, food, hygiene support, medical care, thats according to the white house. For israels part, Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahus office said today that it would allow some humanitarian supplies into Hard Hit Gaza through egypt in the south, food, water, medicine, but no fuel and no humanitarian aid flowing through its own territory until and unless hamas releases the more than 200 hostages. Those developments aside, another reason today was so historic and so important and, frankly, so fraught, was its backdrop. While President Joe Biden on the one hand worked to get supplies to those who so desperately need them, on the other his administration was focused on getting the truth out about a tragedy that was unfolded as we came here on the air yesterday. That tragic explosion at the hospital in gaza, one that left hundreds dead. Last time we were together we had few concrete details outside of what our colleague raf sanchez reported was the, quote, fog of war. Today theres some developments and updates in clarity to share with you. Two senior u. S. Officials telling nbc news the u. S. Has an independent assessment that it was a rocket, but it was not fired from israel. Instead it was fired from and by a palestinian, Islamic Jihad group. Now, that group misfired and hit the hospital. We should be clear this palestinian Islamic Jihad group is a designated terror group, so designated by the United States government and others. Israel concurs with this assessment. The idf today releasing this aerial video of the hospital, which they say shows the location of the failed launch on the part of the palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel also claims to have audio intercepts, which suggest that hamas knows that israel isnt and wasnt ever responsible for the tragic loss of life. But the palestinians absent any evidence and perhaps with the purposes and effect of just what you see on the screen are blaming israelis and israel. Still, even as we speak, protests are spreading not just throughout gaza but in other parts of the world as well. Just north in lebanon, demonstrations turned violent near the u. S. Embassy in beirut. Protesters threw rocks and fireworks, and were met with tear gas and water cannons. As we said, President Joe Biden is making his way back from this historic trip, still so dangerous, and his work appears to be just taking effect and getting started. Lets bring in New York Times pentagon correspondent, Helene Cooper and former chief of staff at the cia at the department of defense, jerry bash. Your paper has that two u. S. Government officials are saying the early assessment that this rocket that resulted in the tragic life resulted from jihad. Thanks for having me. So the u. S. Has been very quick to come out with their intel assessment saying basically that israel that this was not coming, this rocket was not fired by israel. It was fired by the palestinians. The reason why is, as you alluded to earlier, protests are spreading like lightning across the middle east over what people in the Arab World View most people view as an atrocity, anytime you strike a hospital thats going to ignite a lot of protests over the tragic loss of life, the Biden Administration very much does not want to see this turn into like a global firestorm against the israelis, and so for that reason, theyve been very quick to declassify the american intelligence. In the past, as youve seen with the ukraine war, sometimes they take some time to declassify intelligence, but this they came up with very quickly. Our sources are telling us that they used three different strains of intel. One is what they got from the israelis themselves, which are these intercepts that israeli officials have given to american officials of what they said are palestinian fighters and hamas fighters talking about a mistaken Rocket Launch. Thats one strain of intelligence, and thats coming from israel. The other two are open source, one of them is open source reports and that basically means videos from reporters on the ground, people on the ground who tweet, that sort of thing. The third one, which is probably the more the most in the eyes of the american Intelligence Community, the most verifiable is American Infrared data itself that american Officials Say shows the rocket being fired from inside palestinian positions, not from Israeli Military positions. There is but this is all happening, you know, really, really fast, and theyre dealing immediately with some degree of skepticism that is bound that was bound to come. And part of the reason for that is because israel does have as many critics have pointed out, there have been times in the past where israel has said that strikes were launched by palestinians that turned out to be israelis. One example is a year ago made the may 11th, for instance, killing of the palestinian american journalist, aabu akbel. Idf said shefs she was killed by palestinians. Investigations showed that she was killed by the shots that killed her from Israeli Military positions. So that doesnt help at all. But right now several american officials that ive talked to say they feel very firm in their belief that this was not coming from israel. Jeremy bash, i pick up and the two of you are better sourced in this world than i am. Im sure if im hearing it, youre hearing it in stereo, a deep fear that a charge against israel, like the charge that was made yesterday by palestinians, by hamas, by their allies around the world, charges that were amplified in this country is a newly accelerated danger, that theres always been the spread of information and disinformation thats jeopardized Jewish Americans or just American Embassy staff or israeli Embassy Staff in parts of the world, but this is in hyper drive, in overdrive. I wonder if you think that means well see a real effort to do what helene just articulated, assessed, analyzed and declassified intelligence in realtime. Nicole, i think the news media has to hold the mirror up to itself in this moment. If it werent for headlines that said israeli strikes strikes hospital, there wouldnt be people in the streets outside u. S. Embassies threatening our own people and inflaming tensions in the middle east. So i blame the journalists and the Headline Writers who rushed to judgment without any facts at all, and worse, actually, they took the word of the Health Ministry in gaza, which is of course a hamasrun Health Ministry, so its kind of like right after 9 11 taking al qaedas word over the United States about a civilian casualty event in afghanistan. Its absolutely irresponsible. Furthermore, i would say that the arab leaders, the leader of egypt, canceling on the president of the United States while hes en route based on a lie. I mean, that is not a great look for our arab partners. Now, of course, we can politically explain that theyre responding to fury in the street, but that doesnt excuse it. Leaders have to lead. They have to lead especially during moments of crisis. I wish they would have kept on the books the meeting with the president. I actually think that could have been a very construcive moment for the president of the United States to sit down with the israelis in the war cabinet and i say we need to have calm, level headedness. If theres going to be an effort to dismantle hamas, it should be constrained to gaza. It shouldnt spread to a wider war in the region. I really think this is an enormous irresponsible and dangerous moment that we saw unfold yesterday, and we have to be careful as this conflict moves forward not to repeat that mistake. So lets have that uncomfortable conversation. Helene, i watched i was on the air when it happened, and i was rebuked before 4 10 p. M. Yesterday by mary eisen, former colonel in the israeli army who thought it was irresponsible to have the pictures of the injured up. I came on the air and said we dont know who did this. The israelis are saying it was Islamic Jihad. The palestinians say it was israel. And the farthest any journalist from my News Organization got was to chock it up to the fog of war, and that was the very, very experienced and wise raf sanchez. I checked the New York Times headlines the whole time, and the New York Times said rocket hits hospital, palestinians say. Attributing it to the palestinians. If i could just ask you to pull back the curtain and tell me how youre grapping with this, not just the flow of information but the knowledge u. S. From National Security officials who are very candid with their fears that people are going to get hurt based on the information coming out of the region. Yeah, its such an its such a complex thing to cover. I think as, you know, as i was listening to jeremy, i know how careful that the New York Times is about this sort of thing. Im pretty sure without even going back and doing the check that theres no New York Times headline that would immediately say israeli rocket hits a hospital in gaza because thats not how we i mean, weve been covering the war in ukraine. Weve been in afghanistan. Weve been down this road so many times, and its you know, attributing prominence to Something Like that is crazy. However, i do think its a bit of a stretch to think that there wouldnt be there would not be protests outside of embassies if theres an explosion at a palestinian hospital at the same time that there is there are israeli strikes in gaza. I think thats maybe asking a little bit too much. I think we have to be careful, though. This is such an incendiary situation. Its such an incendiary time and tempers are really, really fraught. You have on one hand, you have these israeli people who have just gone through this horrific, horrific attack at a time where theyve been israel and the Israeli Government have been so focused for so long on iran, iran, and iran, and all of a sudden they get this home grown attack at a time where they werent expecting it. Thats going to do something to your psyche. You also have these strikes that are undoubtedly hitting Palestinian Civilians and flaring up tensions there. So its a really raw time whether youre american, whether youre an israel supporter, whether you were concerned for the palestinians or whether youre an israeli citizen yourself, and every the level of emotion that is at play right now i think means that youre going to see these kinds of tensions and flares erupt all over the place. I think it is incumbent on the news media to be careful that were not doing anything that further exacerbates the situation. Yeah, i mean, jeremy, to helenes point, i will say i read all the New York Times reporting last night. I read every story that dealt with this. It articulated that the careful nuances between one would happen, innocent civilians were hurt outside of this hospital and around the hospital, and there wasnt definitive information at this time yesterday about why that had happened. Ooip sorry, nicole . I can hear you. I need to point out please. Im looking at a headline from the New York Times on the website that was subsequently changed that said israeli strike kills hundreds in hospital, palestinians say. What that headline says blaring across the entire top of the website, and of course im not suggesting this is helene. Helenes an amazing reporter whos totally factual and i think her analysis of the intelligence spot on. Im talking generally about the news media, when you say israeli strike kills hundreds in hospital, that is bs. That is hospital. Youve got to add the palestinians say part of it. It wasnt palestinians, it was hamas that said it. We wouldnt credit al qaeda, we wouldnt credit hamas. Hamas just committed an atrocity. Why would any clearthinking journalist say, well, hamas said that the israelis or the jews or whoever did something, why would we put that in the newspaper . It doesnt make any sense. And by the way, im not defending israels actions. Im just saying that as an american, as someone who cares about american National Security as i see these images of people protesting in the street outside of our embassies and having World Leaders cancel a meeting on the president because the media botched this entire story, i think theres some real theres so real analysis that people have to do about journalistic integrity. This is going to go on and on and on. I dont want to dominate the whole conversation about this one issue because President Biden had an amazing visit today. Well get to that, but let me just let me just traffic cop for a second and let helene respond and take the floor and say whatever she wants to say. I read through the stories and they were much more nuanced than that headline. I saw that headline as well, jeremy, i dont think its there right now at 4 15. Its not, correct. I take your point, and what happened after that story was reported that way was the very consequential impact on the president s trip, which might have been more in flux than any of us, that jordan canceled, Mahmoud Abbas canceled. It turned out by this morning our time we knew that it was Islamic Jihad. And i guess im asking both of you because i feel like the good faith pursuit of truth is something that we all share is, and i just want to put it out there that the biggest struggle, the three biggest struggles, i think, so far are the heinous nature of the slaughter from 10 7 is impossible to figure out how to cover, right . I looked at the pictures that the Israeli Government released. I traumatized some of my staff because i thought it was important to see what had happened. We ended up broadcasting one of those pictures. I have learned and read about the skepticism with which the images of slaughtered infant was received in some corners. And i too saw the headline that jeremy saw yesterday, israel strikes hospital palestinians say. It feels like there is an asymmetry of skepticism, and helene, youre not guilty of it, so i wonder how you solve for that. Yep. I dont know how you solve it. I dont know how you get except to continue to be as careful as you possibly can. I would like to take issue, i think, with this whole idea that you cannot attribute something to palestinians, palestinians say. It was not only hamas who said it. There were other palestinians who said it as well. We had reporters who were there, who spoke with palestinians, spoke with hamas, and spoke with other groups. I dont think this was a perfect headline by any stretch of the imagination, but i dont think it merits the sort of response that its getting from jeremy because i think we often thats the whole point of journalism is you tell people where youre getting the information from. When the United States, for instance, bombed kabul with that errant strike after the abbey gate bombing and then said that they were bombing a truckload of terrorists and it turns out the United States had killed children, the stories we first wrote about it attribute attributed it attributed this bombing to the United States, but we also said in our initial headlines on that, Biden Administration says they bombed truckload of terrorists. We attributed that to u. S. Officials. Thats what you have to do. I do think i do think that the headline could have been better. I think it could have and i think it probably, you know, im sure the New York Times is doing many, many after action reports, but i dont think you can you can selectively read what parts of the headline you want to and ignore the rest. The fact that it was attributed to palestinians. Jeremy. Well, unfortunately hamas is the government in gaza, so a Health Ministry in gaza is of course owned and controlled by hamas. We know that. They have lets just review the history. In 2005 and 2006 when the israelis departed gaza, there was an election there. Hamas took over, and since then theyve owned and controlled every single ministry. Every palestinian spokesperson in gaza from a ministr