President Joe Biden’s dramatic wartime visit to Israel and Jordan began to unravel before he left the ground, with a bombing at a hospital in Gaza killing hundreds and Arab leaders withdrawing from meetings planned for the visit .
Authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza said it was an Israeli airstrike. Israel has blamed a failed missile launched by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The United States has called for an investigation.
The leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority blamed Israel for what they called the attack and canceled a summit with Biden scheduled for Wednesday in Amman. Anti-Israel protests broke out in several major cities in the region.
Biden had planned to use the trip to reinforce America’s commitment to Israel as it prepares for a punishing ground invasion to root out Hamas in Gaza. He also intends to send a warning to Iran and its allies not to follow through on threats to attack Israel from the north.
Even before the hospital tragedy, the United States had been urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to limit civilian casualties and ease the growing humanitarian crisis in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The Oct. 7 attack killed 1,300 Israelis and Israel vowed to eliminate the group. Since then, Israeli air strikes have killed more than 3,000 Gazans.
“It’s going to be very bad,” said Randa Slim, a senior fellow and director of conflict resolution at the Middle East Institute in Washington. After the hospital bombing, she said, “People are arming themselves. It’s going to be very difficult, especially if Biden is coming.” Go to Israel and repeat the slogan that Israel has the right to defend itself.”
The White House said the meeting in Jordan would be postponed until later, citing an announcement of mourning by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas over the hospital bombing. The White House said Biden later had phone calls with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Netanyahu, without providing further details.
“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza and the horrific loss of life that resulted,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday night. “The United States unequivocally supports protecting civilian lives during conflicts, Our condolences go out to the patients, medical staff and other innocent people killed or injured in this tragedy.”
Even before the explosion, U.S. and regional officials were increasingly concerned that they would be unable to prevent the conflict from spreading should Israel continue its ground incursion. Biden has dispatched two aircraft carriers to the region and put troops on alert, sending a deterrent message to Iran and its ally Hezbollah, whose thousands of missiles could pose a serious threat to Israel.
“The entire region is on the verge of plunging into the abyss, and a new cycle of death and destruction is pushing us towards that abyss,” Jordan’s king said earlier on Tuesday after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin. “This war The threat of expansion is real.”
As fighting intensifies on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and Hezbollah – which said five of its fighters were killed in clashes on Tuesday – Tehran warned this week that a wider war was “inevitable”.
Administration officials have said they have no plans to deploy U.S. troops to Israel. But an escalation would increase the risk of miscalculation, such as an errant missile hitting U.S. troops in the Mediterranean, or a widespread attack on Israel, which could force a U.S. response. The United States still has about 2,500 troops in Iraq, and Iranian-backed militia groups pose a major military threat to Iraq. Biden called the Iraqi prime minister on Tuesday to discuss how to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hamas from expanding.
The hospital attack cast a pall over a visit that the White House had hoped would showcase Biden’s commitment to key allies and his foreign policy experience, key themes as he heads into next year’s campaign .
On Tuesday night, Israeli leaders reiterated their commitment to destroying Hamas, which the United States and the European Union have designated as a terrorist organization. But with borders closed, Israel cutting power and supplies and stepping up airstrikes, the two million civilians living in the Hamas-controlled Gaza corridor have nowhere to go.
Egypt and Jordan have said they will not accept refugees from Gaza, so the question of where civilians there can go has not yet been resolved. Some Israeli officials say Gazans also bear responsibility for Hamas’ actions because they elected the group to power nearly two decades ago.
But Biden rejected that notion and sharply warned Israel last week that civilians in Gaza cannot be held accountable. More than 500 U.S. citizens are currently trapped there, and Hamas has raised tensions by taking 13 hostages after the Oct. 7 attack.
The United States and Israel are working on a deal to provide aid to Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday after a whirlwind visit to the region and nine hours of talks with Israeli officials. But on Tuesday, trucks remained stuck at the border as Israel sought assurances that aid would not be diverted to Hamas. Efforts to at least allow foreign citizens to leave Gaza show no sign of progress.
German Chancellor Scholz said he stressed the need for aid when he met with Netanyahu in Israel on Tuesday, but made no new public commitments. Biden’s brief visit could buy Gazans at least that much time before a ground invasion.
Israeli officials focused on messages of support from the United States. Security officials said U.S. visitors, from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week to Gen. Michael “Eric” Kurila, the head of Central Command in Israel on Tuesday, expressed concern about their plans to eliminate Hamas. With strong support, Biden will do the same.
A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Americans tried to provide perspective and ensure the Israelis understood the implications of their actions, but that military aid was not conditional on their acceptance of the recommendations.
Adding to Israel’s confidence, the official said, is its belief that Israel’s plan to destroy Hamas has the tacit support of some major Arab countries, even though they cannot admit it publicly.
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