Biden Leaves For Israel, Meeting With Arab Leaders Called Off (image-twitter/POTUS)
US President Joe Biden visit to Jordan has been cancelled. As per Jordan foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Biden’s meeting with Arab leaders such as Jordan King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stands cancelled.
The huge explosion that took place at a Gaza hospital has led to the derailing of US efforts to mobilize support for “Israel’s right to defend itself” with the Middle East leaders. A senior Palestinian official said that Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas has cancelled its participation in the meeting scheduled on Wednesday. He is withdrawing to protest an alleged Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza that Hamas health officials says has killed over 500 people, reports AP.
Biden has scheduled to travel to Israel on Wednesday for a solidarity visit upon the invitation of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Joe Biden though has expressed his disappointment and said, he is “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted”. He then added that US stands equivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy”.
Biden has been backing Israel to eliminate Hamas following the attack carried out on Israel on October 7 in which more than 1,300 people were killed. Hamas has blamed Israeli for causing the explosion at the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza city on Tuesday. But Israel denied the charges and stated that the bombing was a result of a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket. But the group denied the claim and accused Israel of “trying hard to evade responsibility for the brutal massacre it committed.”
While, UAE and Russia has called out for an emergency UN Security Council meeting on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict on Wednesday following the blast at the hospital.
