US President Joe Biden says hospital blast in Gaza 'was not done by Israel'

President Joe Biden opened his visit to Israel on Wednesday by vowing to show the world that the US stands in solidarity with the Jewish people and offering an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital appeared to have been carried out ldquoby the other teamrdquo and not the Israeli militaryldquoBased on what Ive seen it appears as though it was done by the other team not yourdquo Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting referring to Hamas militants But Biden said there were ldquoa lot of people out thererdquo who werent sure what caused the blastThe Hamasrun Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the destruction and hundreds of deaths The Israeli military denied involvement and blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad another militant group However that organisation also rejected responsibilityBiden had been scheduled to visit Jordan after the stop in Israel but meetings there with Arab leaders were called off after the hospital explosion He told Netanyahu he was ldquodeeply saddened and outragedrdquo by the explosion But he also said it was not hyperbole to say Hamas had ldquoslaughteredrdquo Israelis in the October 7 attack ldquoAmericans are grieving they really arerdquo Biden said ldquoAmericans are worriedrdquoNetanyahu thanked Biden for coming to Israel telling him the visit was ldquodeeply deeply movingrdquo ldquoI 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 alwaysrdquoNetanyahu met Biden 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 StripIsrael has been preparing for a potential ground invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas attacks on October 7 which killed 1400 IsraelisJohn Kirby a White House national security spokesperson told reporters aboard Air Force One that Biden ldquowants to get a sense from the Israelis on the situation on the groundrdquo and will ldquoask some tough questions ldquoHell be asking them as a friendrdquo 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 IsraelRoughly 2800 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza Another 1200 people are believed to be buried under the rubble alive or dead health authorities said Those numbers predate the explosion at the AlAhli hospital on Tuesday No clear cause has been established for the blastProtests swept through the region after the blast at the hospital which had been treating wounded Palestinians and sheltering many more who were seeking refuge from the fightingHundreds 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 EmbassyOutrage scuttled Bidens plans to visit Jordan where King Abdullah II had planned to host meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah elSissi But Abbas withdrew in protest and the summit was subsequently cancelled outrightJordan declared three days of mourning after the hospital explosion Kirby said Biden understood the move was part of a ldquomutualrdquo decision to call off the Jordan portion of his trip He said Biden would speak to the Arab leaders by phone as he returned to Washington Ayman Safadi Jordans foreign minister told a staterun television network that the war is pushing the region to the brinkrdquoThere are also fears that a new front could erupt along Israels northern border with Lebanon where Hezbollah operates The Iranbacked organization has been skirmishing with Israeli forcesAlways a believer in the power of personal diplomacy Bidens trip will test the limits of US influence in the Middle East at a volatile time Its his second trip to a conflict zone this year after visiting Ukraine in February to show solidarity with the country as it battles a Russian invasionThe visit to Israel coincides with rising humanitarian concerns in Gaza where Israel has cut off the flow of food fuel and water Mediators have been struggling to break a deadlock over providing supplies to desperate civilians aid groups and hospitalsUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken bouncing back and forth between Arab and Israeli leadership ahead of Bidens visit spent seven and a half hours meeting Monday in Tel Aviv in an effort to broker some kind of aid agreement and emerged with a green light to develop a plan on how aid can enter Gaza and be distributed to civiliansAlthough only a modest accomplishment on the surface US officials stressed that Blinkens talks led to a significant change in Israels position going in ldquo that Gaza would remain cut off from fuel electricity water and other essential suppliesUS officials said it has become clear that already limited Arab tolerance of Israels military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened Their analysis projected that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would not only be a boon to Hamas but would likely encourage Iran to step up its antiIsrael activity adding to fears that a regional conflagration might erupt according to four officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinkingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever