Washington
\nUS President Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday hours after Israel launched a deadly airstrike on a hospital in Gaza City, martyring hundreds of Palestinians and drawing condemnations from world leaders.
\nBiden on a solidarity visit to Israel backed the ally\u00b4s account that Palestinian fighters caused a devastating hospital strike in Gaza, adding Hamas had brought \u201conly suffering\u201d.
\n\u201cI was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. And based on what I\u00b4ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,\u201d Biden said as he opened a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
\n\u201cBut there\u00b4s a lot of people out there not sure so we have to overcome a lot of things,\u201d Biden said.
\n\u201cWe have to bear in mind that Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people and has brought them only suffering,\u201d Biden said.
\nHe said he was encouraging Netanyahu to ensure \u201clife-saving capacity to help the Palestinians who are innocent and caught in the middle of this\u201d.
\nIn announcing Biden\u00b4s visit, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel had agreed to work with the United States on a plan to let aid into Gaza, which has been besieged and bombarded for 12 days and under an Israeli blockade for 16 years.
\nIsrael is threatening a ground invasion following the devastating October 7 assault by Hamas.
\nBiden said he was \u201cproud\u201d to visit Israel.
\n\u201cI want to say to the people of Israel — their courage, their commitment and their bravery is stunning,\u201d Biden said.
\nNetanyahu, who has faced domestic criticism after the deadliest attack in Israel\u00b4s history, had eagerly invited Biden, who until recently had openly criticised some moves by Israel\u00b4s hard-right government.
\nNetanyahu hailed Biden \u2014 who has faced accusations from the rival Republican Party that he is insufficiently pro-Israel \u2014 for paying \u201cthe first visit of an American president in Israel in a time of war\u201d.
\n\u201cThere\u00b4s only one thing better than having a true friend like you standing with Israel and that is having you standing in Israel,\u201d Netanyahu said.
\nNetanyahu, opening the talks with Biden, called for global unity against Hamas.
\n\u201cJust as the civilised world united to defeat the Nazis and united to defeat ISIS [Daesh], the civilised world must unite and defeat Hamas,\u201d Netanyahu said.
\n\u201cI can assure you, Mr President, Israel is united to defeat Hamas and we will defeat Hamas and remove this terrible threat.\u201d
\nThe horror of the hospital deaths threatened to derail his high-stakes visit, with Jordan cancelling a summit where King Abdullah II had been due to host Biden, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
\nThe Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said that an Israeli air strike destroyed the Gaza clinic, while Israel said a misfired rocket launched by the Islamic Jihad group had hit the Ahli Arab Hospital.
\nBetween 200 and 300 people died, according to Gaza health authorities, while Hamas put the toll at more than 500 dead. Neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian accounts could be independently corroborated.
\nMiddle East anger over the 12-day-old Gaza war, which has left thousands dead, has reached new heights after the hospital bloodshed, and protests against Israel were called in cities across much of the Arab and Muslim world.
\nBiden has strongly backed top ally Israel and its military campaign \u2014 retaliation for the killing of 1,400 people who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death in shock cross-border attacks launched by Hamas on October 7.
\nIsrael\u00b4s campaign to destroy Hamas and try to rescue 199 hostages from the besieged and blockaded territory had already left at least 3,000 dead inside Gaza before the hospital was destroyed.
\nEntire Gaza neighbourhoods have been razed and survivors are left with dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel, unable to flee the 40-kilometre (25-mile) long strip that has been blockaded since 2007 by Israel and Egypt.
\n\u201cThe situation in Gaza is spiralling out of control,\u201d UN World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter. \u201cWe need violence on all sides to stop.\u201d
\nHospital carnage
\nOn the ground in Gaza, the blast at the Christian-run hospital brought new chaos and suffering Tuesday night, as the dead were pulled from the rubble and the wounded were rushed to nearby medical centres.
\nScores of bodies cloaked in blood-stained sheets and white plastic wrap soon lined the floors at the nearby the Al-Shifa hospital, where stunned and bereaved relatives tried to identify loved ones.
\nThe Palestine Red Crescent Society said hundreds died including women, children, staff and \u201cinternally displaced people seeking safe shelter\u201d.
\nGhassan Abu Sittah, a doctor with the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), recounted that \u201cwe were operating in the hospital. There was a strong explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room\u201d.
\n\u201cHospitals are not a target,\u201d he said. \u201cThis bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough.\u201d
\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby represents the Anglican church, which runs the Ahli Arab Hospital.
\nHe said the hospital was one of several medical facilities in northern Gaza subject to evacuation orders and that it had already been hit by \u201cIsraeli rocket fire\u201d on October 14, which wounded four staff.
\nAccording to World Health Organisation figures, there have been more than 100 attacks on hospitals, ambulances and other health care assets since October 7.
\nNews of the hospital\u00b4s destruction brought swift international condemnation.
\nEU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said \u201cresponsibility for this crime must be clearly established\u201d and the \u201cperpetrators held accountable\u201d.
\nUnited Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an \u201cimmediate humanitarian ceasefire\u201d and warned Israel against \u201cthe collective punishment of the Palestinian people\u201d.
\nMeanwhile, reacting to the attack on the hospital, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said: \u201cStrongly condemn the Israeli attack on Al-Ahly Al-Mamadany Hospital in Gaza, causing immense civilian casualties. Targeting a hospital, a sanctuary for those in need, is an indefensible act of inhumanity. International humanitarian law give protection to hospitals and medical personnel.
\n\u201cWe demand an end to this indiscriminate targeting and urge the international community to act swiftly to stop the violence and hold those responsible accountable. In my interaction with UN Secretary General a short while ago, I urged him that the global community should ask Israel to stop killing innocent Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington US President Joe Biden landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday hours after Israel launched a deadly airstrike on a hospital in Gaza City, martyring hundreds of Palestinians and drawing condemnations from world leaders. Biden on a solidarity visit to Israel backed the ally\u00b4s account that Palestinian fighters caused a devastating hospital strike in Gaza, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-362453","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n