U.S President Joe Biden speaks to the press onboard of Air Force One en route from Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, October 18, 2023.
Credit: Reuters Photo
President Joe Biden headed home Wednesday after a wartime trip to Israel, where he forcefully vowed that the United States would stand fast with Israel in its war against Hamas, and unveiled a newly brokered deal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt.
As outrage rippled through the Arab world over a blast that killed hundreds at a hospital in Gaza, Biden firmly backed the Israeli government’s assertion that it had nothing to do with the hospital explosion. US and Israeli intelligence officials say early evidence showed the deadly explosion was caused by an errant rocket fired by Palestinian fighters.
In a speech, Biden talked emotionally about the “all-consuming rage” Israelis must feel after seeing 1,400 people slaughtered by Hamas terrorists in cross-border raids Oct. 7. But then he cautioned Israelis not to be so consumed by rage that they make mistakes.
“After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States,” he said. “While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”
It was not clear whether Biden’s speech in Tel Aviv, Israel, would dampen widespread anger over the war and the carnage Tuesday at Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which have prompted widespread anti-Israel protests from Tehran, Iran, to Rabat, Morocco. Many civilians had taken shelter from Israel’s bombing campaign on the hospital grounds.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza and is battling Israel, blamed an Israeli airstrike without citing evidence — a claim that was widely accepted across the Middle East, where many people see Israel as an occupying power backed by the United States.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as they sat side by side in a Tel Aviv hotel before a group of journalists. “But there’s a lot of people out there not sure. So we’ve got a lot, we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.”
Biden did not leave Tel Aviv with nothing to offer critics who say the United States is supporting a brutal siege of Gaza that will only lead to more civilian deaths. He told reporters he had secured agreements from Egypt and Israel to allow international humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, offering the first hint of relief to a humanitarian crisis that has left the enclave’s 2 million residents facing acute shortages of basic necessities.
The US president said the Egyptian government had agreed to let 20 trucks of aid into Gaza as a test, although he did not say when. If Hamas militants intercept the aid, it will be cut off, but if not, Egypt would let more in, Biden said.
Here’s what else to know:
— The Israel Defense Forces outlined at a news conference early Wednesday their version of the cause of the hospital explosion. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, said that the Islamic Jihad group fired 10 rockets at 6:59 p.m. local time. One of the rockets, he said, fell to earth prematurely, hitting a parking lot outside the hospital. He said that Israel had not fired any ordnance in the area of the hospital at that time.
— Biden also announced $100 million in aid to help civilians in Gaza and the West Bank and said he had secured a commitment from Israel’s government to allow food, water and medicine to be delivered to Palestinians in Gaza from Egypt in a humanitarian effort overseen by the United Nations and others.
— The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on the conflict put forth Wednesday by Brazil. The text called for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza and the protection of civilians, and also condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. The US ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said she had vetoed the resolution because it did not state that Israel has a right to defend itself and because she wanted to give Biden’s diplomatic efforts a chance.
— The Gaza City hospital explosion sparked protests in cities across the Middle East that stretched into Wednesday morning, bringing defiant crowds to embassies and consulates of countries that demonstrators said were complicit in the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza.