U.S. President Joe Biden, who landed in Israel Wednesday in an unprecedented wartime visit, has accepted Israel’s explanation after a hospital in Gaza where thousands were sheltering was bombed last night with 500 people killed.
Israel which has conducted intense bombardment in the Gaza Strip since Hamas militants killed 1,300 people and abducted many in Israel, is seen as the main suspect in the hospital attack. But the Israeli government and its military have denied responsibility for the incident.
The Israel Defence Force published pictures to support its claim that the blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was caused by a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad from a nearby cemetery that misfired and landed in the hospital car park.
The IDF has also released what it says is a transcript of a conversation between Hamas members that reveals that Hamas knew that an Islamic Jihad rocket was the cause of the blast.
At a meeting with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after arriving in Tel Aviv, Mr Biden said: “Based on what I’ve seen it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.”
He added: “But there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure, so we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.”
“I wanted to be here today for a simple reason: I want the people of Israel and the people of the world to know where the United States stands,” the U.S. leader said. “I wanted to personally come and make that clear.”
Rational ISIS
On the killings and hostage-taking by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, Mr Biden said, “They have committed evils and atrocities that make ISIS look somewhat more rational. Americans are grieving with you, they really are.”
The U.S. president said that Americans “have to continue to ensure that you have what you need to defend yourselves. And we’re going to make sure that occurs.”
Mr Netanyahu thanked President Biden for support and said, “But above all, Mr. President, the world sees that support, and the moral clarity that you have demonstrated from the moment Israel was attacked.”
President Biden is due to participate in a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet.
A separate quadrilateral summit that was due to take place today in Jordan with the participation of President Biden, King Abdullah of Jordan, Palestinian Authority chairperson Mahmoud Abbas, and President Abdel el-Sisi of Egypt has been cancelled following the hospital blast.
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