Biden lands in Israel as Middle East turmoil grows following hospital explosion in Gaza
Protests swept through the region after the deaths at the hospital, which had been treating wounded Palestinians and sheltering many more who were seeking a refuge from the fighting.
In the wake of the outrage that swept the Middle East after the bombing of a Gaza Strip hospital that killed hundreds, US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel in order to prevent the war with Hamas from spiraling into a larger conflict.
He was originally supposed to visit Jordan for a summit with Arab leaders, but it was called off as he left Washington, leaving unable for face-to-face conversations that would have aided him in navigating the current conflict, said the Associated Press,.
Biden met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport and they embraced before speeding away for hours of meetings, where the US president is expected to push for allowing critical humanitarian aid to be delivered to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
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Israel has been preparing for a potential ground invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas' attacks on Oct. 7, where 1,400 Israelis died.
John Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, told reporters aboard Air Force One that Biden "wants to get a sense from the Israelis on the situation on the ground" and will "ask some tough questions."
"He'll be asking them as a friend," Kirby added.
The president also planned to meet Israeli first responders and the families of victims killed and hostages taken when Hamas made its incursion into Israel.
Roughly 2,800 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. Another 1,200 people are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.
Those numbers predate the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday. No clear cause has been established for the blast.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the destruction. The Israeli military denied involvement and blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group. However, that organization also rejected responsibility.
Biden said in a statement that he was "outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted." He also said he "directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened."
Protests swept through the region after the deaths at the hospital, which had been treating wounded Palestinians and sheltering many more who were seeking a refuge from the fighting.
Hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets of major West Bank cities including Ramallah. More people joined protests that erupted in Beirut, Lebanon and Amman, Jordan, where an angry crowd gathered outside the Israeli Embassy.
Outrage over the hospital explosion scuttled Biden's plans to visit Jordan, where King Abdullah II had planned to host meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. But Abbas withdrew in protest, and the summit was subsequently canceled outright.
Kirby said Jordan had declared three days of mourning after the hospital explosion and that Biden understood the move and was part of a "mutual" decision to call off the Jordan portion of his trip. He said Biden would have an opportunity to speak to the Arab leaders by phone as he returned to Washington.
Ayman Safadi, Jordan's foreign minister, told a state-run television network that the war is "pushing the region to the brink."
