The United States-led diplomatic efforts to rally support for ‘Israel’s right to defend itself’ have been hampered by a massive explosion at a Gaza hospital, and a summit meeting between the American president, Joe Biden, and Arab leaders in Jordan’s capital Amman has been postponed as a result.
Yesterday, just before Biden left for Israel, a bomb went off in the Al Ahli Arab hospital in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of the northern Gaza Strip, killing 471 people and injuring hundreds more. As of the time of publication, it was unclear how many people had died.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the hospital was founded in 1882 by the Anglican church. It offered 80 beds with services such as a free programme to detect breast cancer, a centre for elderly women, and a mobile clinic offering free services to surrounding towns.
Biden, in his reaction, was quick to point the finger of blame over the bomb blast in the hospital at Palestinian militants. Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said: “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.”
Expectedly, Biden’s comments infuriated the Arab countries. Israelis and Palestinians have blamed each other for the hospital bombing. Some Western countries have called for an investigation, without pointing accusing finger at this stage.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, announced that Biden’s summit in Amman scheduled to take place on yesterday with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, and Palestinian authorities President, Mahmoud Abbas, has been cancelled.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, a senior Palestinian official said that Abbas had cancelled his participation in the meeting with Biden following huge spontaneous protests in the West Bank after the news of the explosion came out.
The White House confirmed the cancellation as the president departed Washington, DC, for Israel, less than 24 hours after the trip was announced. Mr. Biden had been scheduled to travel to Amman, Jordan, to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian authorities President, Abbas.
“After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian authorities, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan, and the planned meeting with the two leaders, and President Sisi of Egypt,” a White House official said in a statement released.
Meanwhile, Biden announced yesterday that his administration was sending $100 million in “humanitarian assistance” to Gaza and West Bank for the Palestinian people.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Biden insisted the aid would reach “those in need, not Hamas or terrorist groups,” but did not provide any details on how he would prevent the aid from supporting terrorists in the region.
‘I just announced $100 million for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and West Bank. This money will support over one million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians. And we will have mechanisms in place, so that this aid reaches those in need, not Hamas or terrorist groups,’ Biden wrote on X.
Meanwhile, top Arab American and Muslim leaders have admonished the Biden administration for being insensitive and even reckless in their rhetoric in a private call with State Department officials.
The discussion was a blunt airing of concerns about the conduct of a president and his team. And it came at a particularly sensitive time: in the wake of the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in the Chicago area, which authorities have described as a hate crime.
In Gaza, Hamas was quick to blame an Israeli air strike for causing the explosion at the Al Ahli hospital, but Israel vehemently denied the charges, insisting that a misfired rocket by the Islamic faction caused the explosion.
Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, widely considered to be the faction’s overall leader, in a surprising move, blamed the US as responsible for the attack, stressing that Washington gave Israel the “cover for its aggression”.
“The hospital massacre confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his feeling of defeat,” Haniyeh said in a televised address.
However, Netanyahu held the “barbaric terrorists in Gaza” responsible for the deaths. “So the whole world knows that the barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the Gaza hospital, not the IDF (Israel Defence Forces),” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“Those who cruelly murdered our children, murdered their children as well,” he stressed. Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, went on to describe the accusations by Hamas as a “blood libel.” An Islamic Jihad missile has killed many Palestinians at a Gazan hospital, a place where lives should be saved,” Herzog said in a tweet.
Islamic Jihad has denied the allegations. “Shame on the media which swallow the lies of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, broadcasting a 21st-century blood libel around the globe. Shame on the vile terrorists in Gaza, who willfully spill the blood of the innocent,” the Israeli president wrote.