The US Vice President is visiting Israel to prevent Gaza’s war with Israel from escalating into a regional conflict and mitigate the unfolding humanitarian disaster there. But the fallout from the hospital blast is complicating those efforts. Condemnations poured in from Turkey, Jordan, the Gulf countries, and Israel. And a meeting with Israeli, Palestinian, and Egyptian leaders scheduled in Jordan was canceled, and now it’s unclear how Biden will try to persuade both sides to stop the violence.
The blast at the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City left hundreds dead. The Palestinian health ministry initially blamed an Israel air strike on Tuesday. Still, it changed its statement to say that the damage was caused by a misfiring rocket fired by Hamas or an allied militant group, Islamic Jihad. The claims couldn’t be independently verified, but the scale of the destruction appeared far beyond what either of those groups could have produced on their own.
Moreover, the strike’s timing and impact on Palestinians sparked outrage worldwide, including a strong condemnation from Russian officials. Israel has responded by calling Russia’s accusations a “dehumanizing” attack and insisting that the country has proof it was not involved in the hospital strike. Biden has backed Israel’s claim in a move designed to counterbalance the escalating international pressure on both sides.
He told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu minutes after landing in Tel Aviv today that he was “deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday. And based on what I’ve seen, it appears the other team did it.”
Biden also said that the United States would give Israel everything it needs to defend itself and reiterated that America had no sympathy for Hamas’ attacks against innocent Israeli civilians. Those comments were widely condemned in the Arab world and by Palestinians, who questioned whether he was genuinely interested in stopping the war.
Amid the turmoil, Biden pushed both sides to open up Gaza’s Rafah border crossing so that food and aid could get into the territory and civilians with dual citizenship could leave. US Ambassador to the UN John Kirby has voiced hope that will happen soon. But he couldn’t confirm when that might happen, which could be days before a decision. In the meantime, hundreds of desperate civilians have been lining up for days at the crossing. They are waiting for their only chance to escape from an area engulfed in chaos and suffering since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 Israelis — including dozens of Americans. The siege has been tightened even further in the past week, with Israel pounding the tiny enclave with relentless airstrikes and a ground offensive. The death toll is expected to rise significantly over the coming weeks—those who live near starvation and face the prospect of a catastrophic public health emergency.