Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations downplayed calls for a cease-fire in its war with Hamas, saying it would be “like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.”

“Such steps will not eradicate the cancer that is Hamas,” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s permanent representative to the U.N., said at a Security Council meeting today.

Erdan emphasized that just 11 days had passed since Hamas launched a series of terrorist attacks inside Israel that targeted civilians. He accused the council of being “fixated only on humanitarian corridors and aid.”

“These are important and noble causes, but they are certainly not a solution to prevent Hamas’s next atrocious massacre,” Erdan said.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the U.N., said Israel was “seeking blind vengeance.”

“Those who cannot or will not call for a cease-fire will lose any credibility, any authority, and share some of the responsibility for the devastation that is occurring now,” Mansour said.

Drone video reveals the aftermath of an airstrike at Al Nuseirat Bakery at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza.

Military and munitions experts told NBC News that available evidence indicates a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad — a militant group in Gaza — most likely caused yesterday's deadly explosion at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.

“Based on what I’ve seen so far, I really doubt that this was an airstrike,” said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a military-focused think tank in London. He added that the blast damage doesn’t fit with the missiles that Israel has been using.

Retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO and an NBC News contributor, offered a similar opinion.

“To my eye, the damage on the ground does not look at all like what you would see from an airstrike or a precision-guided weapon,” he said. “It looks like a projectile with a lot of fuel in it hit a parking lot and created a fireball.”

Palestinian officials and Hamas have said Israel hit the hospital and killed hundreds of civilians in a deliberate act.

Israel’s military, however, says it was not responsible, instead suggesting that a rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad failed and fell short.

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Biden will speak to the nation in a prime-time address about Israel and Ukraine from the Oval Office at 8 ET tomorrow night. The address comes after he visited Tel Aviv and pledged support for Israel in the wake of Hamas' attack.

Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi say an agreement has been reached to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

The agreement will have "the relevant authorities in the two countries coordinating with international humanitarian organizations under the supervision of the United Nations,” a spokesperson for El-Sissi said in a statement.

The U.N.’s World Food Program and other groups have been calling for sustained humanitarian access to Gaza. Tor Wennesland, the U.N.'s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, today called opening Rafah “critical.”

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Biden said the agreement will enable up to 20 trucks to cross to start. He praised El-Sissi as deserving real credit, saying, "He stepped up."

"As did Bibi," Biden added, referring to Netanyahu.

Earlier today, Biden said that he spoke with Israel’s Cabinet and that the country had agreed that humanitarian assistance could begin moving from Egypt into Gaza. Biden said the consensus was based on an understanding that inspections would take place and that the aid would go to civilians, not Hamas.

“Let me be clear: If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, it will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people — and it will end,” Biden said.

Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah was working for Doctors Without Borders at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City when the missile struck. Many of the casualties were families seeking refuge in the hospital courtyard, he said.

While President Biden spent the day in Israel, U.S. allies and partners around the world faced another difficult day.

At the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. vetoed a resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver aid to Gaza. France’s U.N. ambassador could barely conceal his criticism of the White House, saying it is “the responsibility of the Security Council to react and to call for all civilians to be spared on all sides.” 

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., insisted the country is engaged in diplomacy on the ground and wants to let that process play out. She also expressed disappointment that the resolution did not mention Israel’s right to self-defense. 

A senior Western diplomat said the vote was not a rift between the U.S. and France but warned of a widening gulf between America’s world and the rest.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, more than 30 lawmakers in the British Parliament backed calls for a cease-fire, a position Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has not supported. 

The clearest crisis of confidence in U.S. leadership is in the Arab world tonight. Protesters have been in the streets from Cairo to Beirut, a worrying sign for leaders who remember the Arab Spring with trepidation. Those who watch the Middle East closely say that’s one reason a summit between Arab leaders and Biden was canceled. And from the Arab perspective, Biden’s trip to Israel is not helping, they say.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Mamoun Fandy, president of the think tank London Global Strategy Institute, worked with the U.S. Congress on how to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. Tonight, he described Biden’s news conference in Israel as, “exhibit A on how to lose the hearts and minds of the entire Muslim world in half an hour.”

Fighting in Gaza has resumed after President Biden’s visit to Israel, just 24 hours after the explosion at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in central Gaza. Raf Sanchez reports on apparent rocket fire seen from Ashdod, Israel.

The White House National Security Council this afternoon said that intelligence indicated that “some Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip believed” that the explosion at a hospital in Gaza “was likely caused by an errant rocket or missile launch carried out by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.” 

“The militants were still investigating what had happened. We continue to work to corroborate whether the explosion resulted from a failed PIJ rocket,” Adrienne Watson, a White House NSC spokesperson, said in a statement.

Watson also reiterated that the U.S. government “assesses that Israel was not responsible for an explosion that killed hundreds of civilians yesterday at the Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip” and that its assessment is based on “available reporting, including intelligence, missile activity, and open source video and images of the incident.”