Getting Things Ready Before You Hop: A New Speaker for the House of Representatives to Rep. Jim Jordan’s Senitivit’e
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But the trip became more fraught after an explosion at a busy Gaza hospital killed hundreds of people, shortly before Biden left Washington. Biden had initially planned to stop in Amman, Jordan after Tel Aviv to meet with three key leaders about humanitarian aid for Gaza. But that part of the trip was called off.
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The director of counterterrorism at the Middle East Institute said the visit couldn’t be worse. “Whatever the circumstances behind this strike at the hospital in Gaza, it doesn’t really matter at this point. The tensions have been inflamed beyond anything we’ve seen over the last week.”
At a time when the Gazans were facing a humanitarian catastrophe and angry people in the Middle East were making threats, Air Force One departed and the American president was bound for Tel Aviv.
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 purpose was to talk about getting humanitarian aid into Gaza, which is running out of food, water and medical supplies. Civilians — including American citizens in Gaza — have been unable to leave through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
Israel and Egypt have been pressed by Biden’s team to let people out of Gaza. On the way to Tel Aviv, Kirby expressed some optimism that could happen soon.
Some of the people believed to be American citizens who were taken during the attacks are being searched for by Biden. Biden will meet with people who lost loved ones during the attacks, as well as first responders, Kirby said.
At the same time, Biden has pledged support for Israel in its war against Hamas, and is expected to ask Congress later this week to provide funding for additional military aid to Israel.
“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 said.
Biden has taken a strong pro-Israel stance after the Hamas attacks, saying that it was the most deadly attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust, and that Israel has a right to defend itself. Kirby stated that 31 U.S. citizens were dead and 13 are still missing.
Biden talked to Netanyahu after the hospital explosion. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that Israel had “categorically and stridently denied” responsibility.
Abbas cancelled his meeting with Biden, and called for three days of mourning. Biden decided to delay the visit after talks with King Abdullah.
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They said the strike on the hospital was a massacre that exposed the American and Western support for the criminal occupation. Hamas called on Muslims and Arabs to come out in large numbers against Israel.
But Biden has visited war zones before, including a trip to Ukraine in February. The president was in Kyiv at the time.
Protests had erupted after the hospital strike in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. 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.
An initial internal review showed that it was a mistake, and that it was fired from Gaza, according to Daniel Hagari.
“We also see a hit at the hospital, but we’re not quite there yet, and we’re investigating the hit in the parking lot, so we’re still gathering intel,” he said.
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.
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.”
Antonio Guterres called for a cease-fire. He said too many lives and the fate of the entire region hang in the balance.
Gaza Arrives in Israel as Gaza Reels from Deadly Hospital Explosion: A Palestinian Health Minister Reveals on a Report from the Baptist Al-Ahli Hospital
Saudi Arabia, which was in serious talks to change relations with Israel, denounced the crime committed by the Israelis in the strongest terms.
Hamas, meanwhile, continues to launch missiles at Israel cities. Israel’s Iron Dome defense system intercepts the most. Air raid sirens are frequently heard in cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Footage online and carried on channels like Al-Jazeera show the carnage of dead bodies strewn on the grass outside the hospital. Women with trauma and children with trauma were being treated in other nearby hospitals. Medications have run low in Gaza at the two dozen or so still functioning hospitals, where medical supplies like painkillers have run out.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israeli air and naval strikes have killed at least 3000 people, third of them children. 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.
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 and looked at the dead bodies of children.
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 to see dead and wounded people.
“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.”
Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip and humanitarian relief in Gaza, according to U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA: “It’s been a long time since I saw the bullet”
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN in an interview 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.
Six people were killed on Tuesday at a United Nations shelter where Palestinians were seeking refuge, according to the UN agency.
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.
Israel restored water supply to the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, but only about one in fourteen of the people there are receiving it.
“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.