President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the US stands in solidarity with Israelis during his visit there on Wednesday, and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital apparently was not carried out by the Israeli military.
Biden on Wednesday said data from his Defence Department showed it was not likely a strike by the Israeli military. And a National Security Council spokesperson later posted on social media that an analysis of "overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information" showed that Israel was not behind the attack. But the US continued to collect evidence.
"Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you," Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But he said there were "a lot of people out there" who weren't sure what caused the blast, which sparked protests throughout the Middle East.
Biden said he had spoken with the Israeli cabinet "to agree to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance of civilians in Gaza, based on the understanding that there will be inspections and the aid will go to civilians and not to Hamas."
"Let me be clear," Biden said. If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people."
Biden also announced an additional $100 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza and the West Bank.
"I understand. Many Americans understand," Biden said, likening the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people.
"You can't look at what has happened here ... and not scream out for justice. While you feel that rage, don't be consumed by it."
Israel had cut off the flow of food, fuel and water to the Gaza Strip after the attack by Hamas, in which nearly 1,400 people in Israel were killed. Mediators have been struggling to break a deadlock over providing supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals. An explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital compounded the suffering.
There were conflicting claims of who was responsible for the hospital blast. Officials in Gaza quickly blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was instead due to a missile misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad dismissed that claim.
The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
Biden had been scheduled to visit Jordan after the stop in Israel, but meetings there with Arab leaders were called off after the hospital explosion. His remarks in Tel Aviv spoke both to the horrors that the Israelis had endured, but also the growing humanitarian crisis for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
He told Netanyahu he was "deeply saddened and outraged" by the hospital explosion. But he also stressed that "Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people, and it has brought them only suffering."
And he spoke of the need to find ways of "encouraging life-saving capacity to help the Palestinians who are innocent, caught in the middle of this."
But he also said Hamas had "slaughtered" Israelis in the October 7 attack that killed 1400 people. Biden described at length the horror of the killing of innocent Israelis, including children.
"Americans are grieving, they really are," Biden said. "Americans are worried."
Biden reiterated the US was firmly behind Israel.
"I want you to know you're not alone. We will continue to have Israel's back as you work to defend your people," Biden said. "We'll continue to work with you and partners across the region to prevent more tragedy to innocent civilians."
Netanyahu said the president's visit was "deeply, deeply moving," adding, "I know I speak for all the people of Israel when I say thank you Mr. President, thank you for standing with Israel today, tomorrow and always."
Netanyahu said Biden had rightly drawn a clear line between the "forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism," saying Israel was united in its resolve to defeat Hamas.
"The civilised world must unite to defeat Hamas," he said.
US officials on Wednesday also announced sanctions against a group of 10 Hamas members and the Palestinian militant organization's financial network across Gaza, Sudan, Turkey, Algeria and Qatar.
Biden met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog as well as with Israeli first responders and the families of victims and those being held hostage by Hamas. He held their hands, embraced them and listened quietly as their voices cracked as they spoke of the horrors they'd seen.
Eli Beer, the founder of a volunteer emergency medical service, told Biden that through his visit "you uplifted the whole spirit in this country, and all the Jewish people in the world."
Biden met Israeli first responders and the families of victims and hostages.
Netanyahu met Biden at Ben Gurion Airport and the two embraced.
The grim tone of Wednesday's meetings between Biden and Netanyahu stood in stark contrast to their optimistic meeting just a month ago on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, where Netanyahu marveled that a "historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia" seemed within reach.
The possibility of improved relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours appears to be dimming; Israel has been preparing for a potential ground invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas' attacks.
Roughly 2800 Palestinians have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. Another 1200 people are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.
Those numbers predate the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday. No clear cause has been established for the blast.
Protests swept through the region after the blast at the hospital, which had been treating wounded Palestinians and sheltering many more who were seeking a refuge from the fighting.
Hundreds of Palestinians flooded the streets of major West Bank cities including Ramallah. More people joined protests that erupted in Beirut, Lebanon and Amman, Jordan, where an angry crowd gathered outside the Israeli Embassy.
Outrage scuttled Biden's plans to visit Jordan, where King Abdullah II was to host meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. But Abbas withdrew in protest, and the summit was subsequently canceled outright.
Jordan declared three days of mourning after the hospital explosion. Kirby said Biden understood the move was part of a "mutual" decision to call off the Jordan portion of his trip. He said Biden would speak to the Arab leaders by phone as he returned to Washington.
Ayman Safadi, Jordan's foreign minister, told a state-run television network that the war is "pushing the region to the brink."
Even without the Jordan summit, it's possible Biden could make headway toward de-escalating the conflict. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said on Tuesday that Biden was "capable of telling Israel, Enough is enough."
Hospitals will be 'mass graves' as Gaza crisis worsens: doctor
"You have to stop this carnage against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Let this stop. Let humanitarian assistance take place," he said. "Do not displace two million Palestinians and push them in the direction of Jordan and then let's begin a political horizon."
There are also fears that a new front could erupt along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah operates. The Iran-backed organisation has been skirmishing with Israeli forces.
Always a believer in the power of personal diplomacy, Biden's trip will test the limits of US influence in the Middle East at a volatile time. It's his second trip to a conflict zone this year, after visiting Ukraine in February to show solidarity with the country as it battles a Russian invasion.
The visit to Israel coincides with rising humanitarian concerns in Gaza, where Israel has cut off the flow of food, fuel and water. Mediators have been struggling to break a deadlock over providing supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, bouncing back and forth between Arab and Israeli leadership ahead of Biden's visit, spent seven and a half hours meeting Monday in Tel Aviv in an effort to broker some kind of aid agreement and emerged with a green light to develop a plan on how aid can enter Gaza and be distributed to civilians.
Although only a modest accomplishment on the surface, US officials stressed that Blinken's talks led to a significant change in Israel's position going in — that Gaza would remain cut off from fuel, electricity, water and other essential supplies.
US officials said it has become clear that already limited Arab tolerance of Israel's military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened.
Their analysis projected that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would not only be a boon to Hamas but would likely encourage Iran to step up its anti-Israel activity, adding to fears that a regional conflagration might erupt, according to four officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking.
