White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One that US President Joe Biden will ask “difficult questions” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli leaders during his visit to Israel.
Kirby added, on Wednesday, that Biden wants to know the Israelis’ goals in the coming days.
He added that Biden intends to speak with his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, on his way back to Washington after visiting Israel.
He pointed out that the main reason for Abbas’s withdrawal from the Amman summit was the declaration of mourning for three days after the attack on the hospital, explaining that the American administration “understands” the decision to withdraw, stressing that the decision not to go to Amman was mutual.
He explained that there are no plans or intentions to deploy American forces on the ground to fight in Israel.
Kirby spoke about aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip, saying: “We are optimistic about our ability to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, and we are close to developing a framework for delivering aid to Gaza from Egypt.”
Injured people are taken into hospital after hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other
On Tuesday, Biden expressed “anger and deep sadness” over the explosion that occurred at the National Arab Hospital in Gaza, and the resulting huge loss of life.
Biden said, in statement Posted by the White House, “Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with the King of Jordan, King Abdullah II, and the Prime Minister of Israel, (Benjamin) Netanyahu, and directed my national security team to continue gathering information about exactly what happened.
Biden stressed that the United States “unequivocally supports protecting civilian lives during conflict, and we mourn the patients, medical workers and other innocent people killed or injured in this tragedy.”
Biden received a briefing from his security team regarding the explosion at Al-Ahly Hospital, and made a phone call with Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who is in the region, according to what Al-Hurra’s correspondent reported from the White House.
People are assisted at Shifa Hospital after hundreds of Palestinians were killed in a blast at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other
Biden left the United States for Israel on a visit that comes against the backdrop of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He was supposed to participate in a summit gathering with the Jordanian King, Abdullah II, and the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. But the bombing of the hospital caused the summit to be cancelled, and Abbas left for Ramallah.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced, on Tuesday, that at least 500 people were killed in an “Israeli air strike” on the National Arab Hospital in the Strip.
The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) indicated that hundreds were killed and wounded in the bombing of Al-Ahly Al-Arabi Hospital (Al-Maamdani) in a neighborhood in Gaza City.
The Palestinian Agency reported that “planes launched a raid” on the hospital while thousands of displaced citizens were present, who took refuge there after their homes were destroyed and were searching for a safe place.
Video clips showed ambulances transporting the dead and injured, in addition to a fire breaking out as a result of the bombing. A video clip captured the moment the hospital was bombed.
EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / People gather around bodies of Palestinians killed in a strike on the Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza after they were transported to Al-Shifa hospital, on October 17, 2023. – A strike on a hospital compound in the…
The Israeli army denied responsibility for an attack on a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, saying that military intelligence information indicated that the hospital “was subjected to a failed missile attack launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement in the Strip.”
But a spokesman for Islamic Jihad denied Israel’s account of the movement’s responsibility for the Gaza hospital strike.
An Israeli army spokesman said in a statement, “An analysis of the Israeli army’s operational systems indicates that terrorists in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets that passed near Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit.”
He added, “The intelligence information we obtained from multiple sources indicates that the Islamic Jihad movement is responsible for launching the failed missile that hit the hospital in Gaza.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that targeting Al-Ahli Hospital is “a heinous war crime that cannot be tolerated or allowed to pass without accountability,” adding that “we will not accept any words other than stopping this war from anyone.”
Abbas added, in a speech after his return from Jordan, where a four-way summit that would have brought him together with US President Joe Biden was cancelled, that targeting the hospital is “an unforgivable crime, and thus the occupation government has crossed all red lines and we will not allow it to escape accountability and punishment.”
He continued: “We will not leave our homeland and will not allow anyone to expel us from it.”
The strike sparked shock and condemned international and Arab reactions. Prime Minister Al-Kandari, Justin Trudeau, described the attack as “horrific and completely unacceptable.”
Trudeau said the news from Gaza is “catastrophic, it’s terrible, it’s unacceptable.”
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley also said in a statement on the X website, “The destruction of Al-Ahly Hospital caused horrific loss of life. The United Kingdom’s position was clear. The priority is to protect the lives of civilians.”
He added, “We will work in the United Kingdom with our allies to find out what happened, and to protect civilians in Gaza.”
French President Emmanuel Macron commented on the bombing of the hospital, saying: “Nothing justifies targeting civilians.”
The World Health Organization also strongly condemned the attack on the National Arab Hospital in Gaza. Egypt condemned “in the strongest terms” the Israeli air strike, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, saying that the international community must urgently intervene to stop such violations.
Wounded Palestinians sit in al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, after arriving from al-Ahli hospital following an explosion there, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. The Hamas-run Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike caused the explosion…
A statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday that Cairo “considered this deliberate bombing of civilian facilities and targets a serious violation of the provisions of international and humanitarian law, and of the most basic values of humanity. It calls on Israel to immediately stop its policies of collective punishment against the people of the Gaza Strip.”
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday that the Kingdom condemns in the strongest terms “the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces by bombing Al-Ahly Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which led to the death of hundreds of civilians, including children, wounded and wounded.”
Jordan, for its part, “strongly condemned the Israeli attack on a hospital in Gaza, which led to the death of hundreds of injured and displaced civilians,” according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Jordanian statement stressed the need to provide protection for the Palestinian people, and called for immediate concerted efforts to stop the raging war in Gaza.
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2023-10-18 01:10:50
