JERUSALEM – President Joe Biden arrived in Israel Wednesday, after a catastrophic blast on a Christian hospital in the Gaza Strip to reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Israel’s security and as the U.S. continues to press Israel to agree to humanitarian relief corridors.
The deadly blast at the Al Ahili Arab Hospital, which killed hundreds of people, sparked immediate protests across the Middle East, strong condemnation of Israel by Arab governments and marked a dramatic escalation in the violence gripping the region since a deadly Hamas attack against Israeli towns nearly two weeks ago.
Israel blamed the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group for the strike, saying it was a misfired rocket that hit the hospital. Hamas and the PIJ said it was an Israeli airstrike that struck families as they were sleeping in the confines of the hospital’s grounds.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. He said too many lives and the fate of the entire region hang in the balance.
Biden’s trip comes as Israel prepares for a ground offensive in Gaza. Biden wants to learn more about the objectives and plans for coming days and weeks, said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
“He’ll be asking some tough questions – he’ll be asking them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel but he’ll be asking some questions of them,” Kirby told reporters on the eve of Biden’s visit.
The Biden administration has been working to try and contain the violence from spreading to the other parts of the region, but a meeting that was scheduled in Jordan with Biden and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority was cancelled by the Arab leaders after the hospital strike.
The White House said the president looks “forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon, and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days.”
The hospital strike marks a turning point in the war
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under intense domestic pressure to respond forcefully to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, said in a statement that it was the “barbaric terrorists in Gaza” that attacked the Baptist Al-Ahli hospital.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters late Tuesday evening that an initial internal review showed it was a misfired rocket from Gaza, based on footage from Israeli drones and chatter among militants calling it a PIJ misfire.
“We don’t see a direct hit at the hospital, we see kind of a hit in the parking lot but we’re still finishing the investigation of that,” he said, before adding that Israel continues to gather intel, including off Al-Jazeera live footage and other sources.
Hamas described the strike on the hospital as a massacre that “also exposes the American and Western support for this criminal occupation.” Hamas called on Muslims and Arabs across the world to protest and rally against Israel.
Protests had already erupted across cities in the Middle East after the hospital strike in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, to name a few. Protests also broke out in Palestinian cities in the West Bank with protesters in Ramallah chanting slogans against Israel and the Palestinian Authority leadership as police tried to disperse them.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he condemns the “deliberate bombing” calling it a clear violation of international law.
Saudi Arabia, which had been in serious talks to normalize relations with Israel just weeks ago, also slammed Israel, saying it “condemns in the strongest terms the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces.”
The United Arab Emirates, which has close security and trade ties with Israel, said it, too, condemns Israel for the strike on the hospital.
Hamas, meanwhile, continues to launch missiles at Israel cities. Israel’s Iron Dome defense system intercepts most. Air raid sirens are frequently heard in cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Scenes of carnage at the Gaza Hospital
The Baptist Al-Ahli hospital was not only treating wounded people from continuous Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, but it was also sheltering families with nowhere else to go.
Israel has told half of Gaza’s population to leave their homes, with hundreds of thousands heading south. But areas in the south, and across Gaza, continue to be hit by Israeli airstrikes.
A senior Health Ministry official in Gaza, Dr. Yousef Abu Al-Reesh, gave a press conference after the hospital strike. He stood at a podium, surrounded by the dead bodies of children, including babies.
He said that before the Baptist Al-Ahli hospital was hit, Israel had shelled the hospital twice, causing some damage. He said this was followed by a warning from Israel asking why the hospital had not yet been evacuated.
Dr. Fadel Naim, a doctor at the Baptist Al-Ahli hospital, told NPR that doctors were operating on patients when they heard a loud explosion. He ran outside and saw dead and wounded everywhere.
“We tried to help who we can help. Some of them died in our hands,” he said. Many were missing limbs and bleeding out,” Dr. Naim said.
“We found one baby on the roof of the hospital,” he said, describing the horrific scene and impact of the explosion. “Many babies died yesterday. Many babies.”
Footage online and carried on channels like Al-Jazeera show the carnage of dead bodies strewn on the grass outside the hospital. Bloodied and traumatized women and children were show being treated in other nearby hospitals, screaming, shaking or still in shock. Medications have run low in Gaza at the two dozen or so still functioning hospitals, where medical supplies like painkillers have run out.
Gaza’s health and water crisis
This latest round of violence erupted when militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated Israel, killing more than 1,300 people inside Israel. At least 200 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip. Entire southern towns were destroyed.
Since then, Israeli air and naval strikes on Gaza have killed at least 3,000 people, a third of them children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. That death toll was before the hospital strike. Another 1,200 people are missing, presumed dead or still alive under the rubble of thousands of homes that have been destroyed and turned to rubble.
Gaza is under complete siege, with no food or fuel entering for more than a week.
Thousands of aid trucks are positioned in Egypt near is border crossing with Israel.
Egypt’s foreign ministry said Israel has bombed the crossing several times in recent days, including as Egyptian workers were repairing damage from one of the airstrikes, wounding several of them.
A U.N. shelter where thousands of Palestinians were seeking refuge was also struck by an Israel on Tuesday, killing six people, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
The U.N. relief agency, OCHA, says Gaza has been under full electricity blackout and that its largest hospital only has a few more days of fuel for its generators after the World Health Organization delivered locally stored fuel to it.
The U.N. agency also said that people are estimated to have less than a gallon of water for all their needs per day, including for drinking, hygiene and cooking. That’s in part because water and sanitation facilities have been severely damaged.
Israel partially resumed water supply to the eastern Khan Younis area of Gaza this week, but the U.N’s OCHA says that only reaches 14% of Gaza’s population.
“People have resorted to consuming brackish water extracted from agricultural wells, increasing exposure to pesticides and other chemicals, placing the population at risk of death or infectious disease outbreak,” the U.N. relief agency said.
NPR’s Ruth Sherlock contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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