While on a visit to Israel, US President Joe Biden backed Israel’s account of the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital by saying it appeared to have been conducted by Palestinian militants.
The explosion “deeply saddened and outraged” Mr. Biden, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
According to the Israeli military, a failed Palestinian rocket fire was to blame.
But according to Palestinian officials, the hospital was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
Although no official death toll has been released, health officials in Gaza claim that the blast killed around 500 people.
The explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday evening has overshadowed Mr. Biden’s important visit and triggered demonstrations around the area.
He arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave him a warm welcome before the two had a joint press conference.
“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,” stated Vice President Biden.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” he stated to Netanyahu. “But there’s a lot of people out there not sure so we have to overcome a lot of things.”
Later, when asked by reporters what evidence he had that Israel was not at fault, Mr. Biden responded, “The data I was shown by my defence department.”
In the press conference, he reaffirmed his backing for Israel and denounced the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas, which on October 7 launched an unparalleled offensive from Gaza against Israel that claimed 1,400 lives.
According to Palestinian health sources, Israeli reprisal attacks on Gaza have resulted in at least 3,000 fatalities.
After the hospital explosion on Tuesday, Mr. Biden’s scheduled trip from Israel to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi was postponed.
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Jordan labelled it “a great calamity and a heinous war crime” and called off the summit. While this was going on, the White House declared that the choice had been “made in a mutual way” and that Mr. Biden would phone both Mr. Abbas and Mr. Sisi on his trip back to the US.
Later on Wednesday, the US president is anticipated to meet with the Israeli military cabinet.
According to US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, he will pose “tough questions” to learn more about Israel’s war aims and objectives in Gaza.
Mr. Kirby told reporters, “He’ll be asking some tough questions but he’ll be asking them as a friend,” adding that the US would emphasise the requirement for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and the duty to prevent civilian casualties.
According to sources, Mr. Biden will also visit some of the people who lost loved ones or whose family members are being held hostage, as well as emergency personnel who responded to the Hamas attack.
According to sources it referred to as being familiar with the proposal, Israel has requested $10 billion (£8.2 billion) in emergency military aid from the US as a result of the strike, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
One doctor referred to the hospital explosion as “a massacre” by authorities in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas. 500 people are said to have killed in the blast.
The “war crime” was attributed to Israel by Hamas. Israel was accused of committing a “heinous crime” by a Mr. Abbas spokeswoman who is stationed in the occupied West Bank.
However, the Israeli military claimed to have proof that its forces were not responsible for the explosion and that Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets that were fired inadvertently were.
“According to our intelligence, Hamas checked the reports, understood it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that had misfired – and decided to launch a global media campaign to hide what really happened,” spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari stated at a conference on Tuesday. “They went as far as inflating the number of casualties.”
BBC
