Jerusalem: Shortly after arriving in Israel on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said that the explosion that killed hundreds in a Gaza Strip hospital appeared to not have been caused by Israel.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, news agency AP reported. But Biden said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren’t sure what caused the blast.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the destruction killing at least 500 people. 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 vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israelis during his visit even though he didn't offer details on why he believed the blast was not caused by the Israelis. Biden had been scheduled to visit Jordan after the stop in Israel, but meetings there with Arab leaders were called off after the hospital explosion. His remarks spoke both of the horrors the Israelis had endured and also the growing humanitarian crisis for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
He told Netanyahu he was “deeply saddened and outraged” by the hospital explosion. He stressed that “Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people. and it has brought them only suffering.” Biden spoke of the need to find ways of “encouraging life-saving capacity to help the Palestinians who are innocent, caught in the middle of this.”
But he also said Hamas had “slaughtered” Israelis in the Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,400 people. Biden described at length the horror of the killing of innocent Israelis, including children. “Americans are grieving, they really are,” Biden said. “Americans are worried.” Netanyahu thanked Biden for coming to Israel, telling him the visit 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.” Netanyahu said Biden had rightly drawn a clear line between the “forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism,” saying Israel was united in its resolve to defeat Hamas. “The civilized world must unite to defeat Hamas," he said.
Biden also planned to meet Israeli first responders and the families of victims and hostages. Netanyahu met Biden at Ben Gurion Airport and the two embraced. It was almost exactly a month ago that they sat together at the United Nations General Assembly, where Netanyahu marvelled that a “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” seemed within reach.
The possibility of improved relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours appears to be dimming; Israel has been preparing for a potential ground invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas' attacks.
Roughly 3,000 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.
Protests swept through the region after the blast 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. (With AP inputs)
Also read: Gaza: Al-Ahli hospital blast kills 500; Hamas, Israel trade blame as rage spreads in region
