Tel Aviv: US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday to express his support for the Jewish state and its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Biden also cast doubt on the claim that Israel was responsible for the massive explosion that destroyed a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, killing hundreds of people.
Biden met with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and praised him for his efforts to defend Israel from the rocket attacks launched by Hamas on October 7, which killed 1,400 Israelis. Biden said he was “very sad and unhappy” about the hospital blast, but suggested that it was not caused by an Israeli airstrike, as alleged by Hamas and some international media outlets.
“Based on what I have seen, it appears that this work was done not by you, but by another team,” Biden told Netanyahu, without elaborating on who he thought was behind the explosion. He added that there were many people who did not know what caused the blast and that he wanted to get more information from the Israelis.
The Israeli military has denied any involvement in the hospital explosion and blamed it on a misfired rocket from another extremist group, Palestine Islamic Jihad. However, this group has also denied this accusation. The health ministry of Hamas-ruled Gaza said Israel had carried out an airstrike on the Al Ahli Hospital, killing more than 300 people and injuring hundreds more.
Biden also expressed his concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where about 2,800 Palestinians have died and thousands more have been injured in the Israeli attacks since October 7. He said he wanted to find ways to help “innocent Palestinians caught in the middle” of the fighting, but also condemned Hamas for its violence and its disregard for the Palestinian people.
“Hamas does not represent all Palestinians and has only brought them troubles,” Biden said. He stressed that Hamas had committed a massacre of Israelis in the October 7 attack and that the civilized world must unite to defeat it. “The civilized world must unite to defeat Hamas,” he said.
Netanyahu thanked Biden for his visit and his solidarity with Israel, saying it was “heart-touching.” He said Biden had drawn a clear line between the forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism and that Israel was determined to end the threat posed by Hamas. “When I say, Mr. President, thank you for standing with Israel today, tomorrow, and always, I speak on behalf of all the people of Israel,” he said.
Biden also plans to meet with some of the Israeli victims of the attacks and the families of those taken hostage by Hamas. He had originally planned to visit Jordan after his stop in Israel, but his meetings with Arab leaders there were canceled after the hospital blast. His visit comes at a time when the prospects for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors seem bleak, despite some signs of warming ties before the outbreak of violence.
Just a month ago, Biden and Netanyahu had sat together at the UN General Assembly where Netanyahu said that “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” seemed possible. However, since then, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza and called for an end to the bloodshed. Israel is preparing for a possible ground invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas’ attacks.
