Tel Aviv: President Joe Biden has visited Israel on an urgent mission to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader regional conflict. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt following a request from Biden.
The president's visit came after hundreds of people were reported killed in an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital. There were conflicting claims of who was responsible for the hospital blast. Officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was due to a missile misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.
The war that began Oct. 7 has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,000 injured in the past 11 days.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Currently:
1. Biden says the U.S. will provide $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians affected by conflict in Gaza and the West Bank.
2. Egypt and other Arab countries typically don't want to take in Palestinian refugees.
3. Relatives of people taken hostage by Hamas militants tell their stories as they hope for their safe return.
4. The U.S. has vetoed a proposed U.N. resolution to condemn violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war.
5. Rage at the Gaza hospital blast carnage spread throughout the Middle East.
Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
- Australian lawmaker accuses Israel of 'collectively punishing' Palestinians
Australian government minister Ed Husic has accused Israel of collectively punishing Palestinians in its war on Hamas. He said, "I feel very strongly that Palestinians are being collectively punished here for Hamas' barbarism." He added: "I really do feel there is an obligation on governments, particularly the Israeli government, to ... follow the rules of international law and to observe in particular that innocents should be protected."
- Airstrike kills 7 small children in Gaza home, residents and doctors say
Residents and doctors in this southern Gaza town said an airstrike slammed into a home, killing seven small children. The news spread quickly on social media, as grisly images of dead and bloodied toddlers lined up side by side on a hospital stretcher stirred outrage in Gaza and the West Bank. Bandaged and caked in dust, the bodies were brought to the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis along with three other dead members of the Bakri family. Photographers swarmed the operation room as women covered their eyes and doctors wept.
- Liverpool and Egypt star Salah urges leaders to prevent more blood shed, get humanitarian aid to Gaza
Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah, arguably the most celebrated Arab footballer, called on world leaders to "come together to prevent further slaughter of all innocent souls" and for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza. "There has been too much violence and too much heartbreak and brutality," the Liverpool striker said in a video that lasted a little under a minute. "The escalations in the recent weeks is unbearable to witness. All lives are sacred and must be protected. The massacres need to stop. Families are being torn apart."
- US Senators say after classified briefing that Israel not behind hospital blast
Senators who attended a classified briefing with top defense, intelligence and other administration officials said they were briefed that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast. "The intelligence community assesses that Israel is not to blame for the explosion of the hospital in Gaza," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as he left. "They believe it was an errant rocket from terrorists in Gaza."
- UN officials warn over Gaza health system, risk of conflict expanding
U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that the deadly destruction of a hospital has heaped further pressure on Gaza's crumbling health system, depriving the territory of a facility that cared for 45,000 patients every year. Speaking in a video briefing from Qatar, Griffiths also said the Al Ahli hospital was previously struck on Oct. 14.
- British PM Rishi SUnak heads to Middle East in Bid to contain conflict
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is flying to Israel and nearby countries as part of diplomatic efforts to stop the crisis triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7 attack from worsening. Sunak's office says he will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on Thursday. He will condemn Hamas' "horrific act of terror" and express condolences for the "terrible loss of life" in both Israel and Gaza.
- Biden says Egypt agrees to open Rafah crossing for Gaza aid
President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Egypt's president has agreed to open a border crossing into Gaza to allow in 20 trucks with humanitarian aid. Biden said he spoke with Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi after his visit to Israel, where leaders there agreed to allow the aid in. Biden was speaking to reporters on Air Force One during a refueling stop in Germany on his way back to the U.S. from Tel Aviv.
- Security forces arrest dozens, fire live rounds to disperse protests in the occupied West Bank
Rights groups in the occupied West Bank say Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of Palestinians protesting the deadly explosion at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. The protests late Tuesday devolved into skirmishes with Palestinian security forces, who fired tear gas, stun grenades and live fire to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators, wounding several.
- Protests around the world
Thousands demonstrated outside the consulates of Israel and the United States in Istanbul late Wednesday. Many waved Palestinian flags, shouted anti-Israeli slogans and called for revenge against Israel a day after the deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza. Large protests also erupted in Tunisia and Morocco, with demonstrators outraged by the blast at the hospital in Gaza.
Protesters gathered outside the Parliament in Rabat chanting "Down with America" and demanding that Morocco reverse its 2020 decision to normalize relations and deepen security ties with Israel..
- New York Governor visits Israel to show solidarity
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul arrived in Israel to show support for the country. The Democrat was met at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv by Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Herzog. After a security briefing, Hochul met with families and was scheduled to head to a food pantry to help pack and drop off boxes for people displaced by the conflict. Hochul was expected to stay in Jerusalem overnight.
- Hamas rejects claims that Israel isn't behind hospital blast
Hamas is denying Israel's claims that another militant group was responsible for the massive explosion at a Gaza City hospital that killed hundreds of people. In a statement Wednesday, Hamas said that in the days before Tuesday's blast at al-Ahli Hospital, Israeli authorities sent threats to several Gaza Strip hospitals and told each to evacuate or they would "be responsible for what happens." (With AP inputs)
