By Emma Emeozor with agency reports
A huge explosion at a Gaza hospital has derailed the diplomatic efforts led by the United States to mobilise support for “Israel’s right to defend itself” with a summit meeting between the American President, Joe Biden, and Arab leaders in Jordan’s Amman being called off.
Shortly before Biden’s departure for Israel yesterday, a bomb blast killed 471 and injured hundreds of civilians in the Al Ahli Arab hospital, located in the Zeitoun neighborhood, which lies in the northern region of the Gaza Strip. The extent of the casualties was not yet clear as at press time.
The hospital was founded in 1882 by the Anglican church. It offered 80 beds with services such as a free programme to detect breast cancer, a centre for elderly women, and a mobile clinic offering free services to surrounding towns.
Biden, in his reaction, was quick to point the finger of blame over the bomb blast in the hospital at Palestinian militants. Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said: “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.”
Expectedly, Biden’s comments infuriated the Arab countries. Israelis and Palestinians have blamed each other for the hospital bombing. Some Western countries have called for an investigation, without pointing accusing finger at this stage.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, announced that Biden’s summit in Amman scheduled to take place on yesterday with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, and Palestinian authorities President, Mahmoud Abbas, has been cancelled.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, a senior Palestinian official said that Abbas had cancelled his participation in the meeting with Biden following huge spontaneous protests in the West Bank after the news of the explosion came out.
The White House confirmed the cancellation as the president departed Washington, DC, for Israel, less than 24 hours after the trip was announced. Mr. Biden had been scheduled to travel to Amman, Jordan, to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian authorities President, Abbas.
“After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian authorities, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan, and the planned meeting with the two leaders, and President Sisi of Egypt,” a White House official said in a statement released.
Meanwhile, Biden announced yesterday that his administration was sending $100 million in “humanitarian assistance” to Gaza and West Bank for the Palestinian people.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Biden insisted the aid would reach “those in need, not Hamas or terrorist groups,” but did not provide any details on how he would prevent the aid from supporting terrorists in the region.
“I just announced $100 million for humanitarian assistance in Gaza and West Bank. This money will support over one million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians. And we will have mechanisms in place, so that this aid reaches those in need, not Hamas or terrorist groups,” Biden wrote on X.
Meanwhile, top Arab American and Muslim leaders have admonished the Biden administration for being insensitive and even reckless in their rhetoric in a private call with State Department officials.
The discussion was a blunt airing of concerns about the conduct of a president and his team. And it came at a particularly sensitive time: in the wake of the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in the Chicago area, which authorities have described as a hate crime.
In Gaza, Hamas was quick to blame an Israeli air strike for causing the explosion at the Al Ahli hospital, but Israel vehemently denied the charges, insisting that a misfired rocket by the Islamic faction caused the explosion.
Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, widely considered to be the faction’s overall leader, in a surprising move, blamed the US as responsible for the attack, stressing that Washington gave Israel the “cover for its aggression”.
“The hospital massacre confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his feeling of defeat,” Haniyeh said in a televised address.
However, Netanyahu held the “barbaric terrorists in Gaza” responsible for the deaths. “So the whole world knows that the barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the Gaza hospital, not the IDF (Israel Defence Forces),” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“Those who cruelly murdered our children, murdered their children as well,” he stressed. Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, went on to describe the accusations by Hamas as a “blood libel.” An Islamic Jihad missile has killed many Palestinians at a Gazan hospital, a place where lives should be saved,” Herzog said in a tweet.
Islamic Jihad has denied the allegations. “Shame on the media which swallow the lies of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, broadcasting a 21st-century blood libel around the globe. Shame on the vile terrorists in Gaza, who willfully spill the blood of the innocent,” the Israeli president wrote.
“Never before has the choice been clearer. Israel is standing against an enemy made of pure evil. If you stand for humanity, for the value of all human life, you stand with Israel,” he emphasised as the tensions in the region look to intensify further following the deadly incident.
A statement from the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that an analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing close to the Al Ahli hospital at the time it was hit. “Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicate that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza,” it said.
Anti-Israel protests have flared across the Middle East and North Africa. Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq issued statements condemning Israel and accusing its military of bombing the hospital.
Thousands of protesters shouting anti-Israel slogans yesterday gathered in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, and Tunisia. Protests also rocked the occupied West Bank City of Ramallah. Jordan’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ayman Safadi, posted on X, “How many innocent Palestinians must die before Israel stops its war on Gaza?”
Safadi called for peace and said international law “can’t be selective,” and that the “World must speak clearly, act promptly against this war.”
On Tuesday night, hundreds of protesters gathered near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan. One group made an attempt to “reach it,” but a security source said that security forces dealt with them and pushed them away.
In Lebanon, hundreds of protesters gathered in the square that leads to the US embassy north of Beirut and tried to break through security barriers, according to reports. Protesters also chanted anti-Israel slogans in Baghdad, Iraq.
Dozens of protesters attempted to cross a bridge that leads to the Green Zone, an area that houses Iraqi government offices and several embassies, including the US embassy, but security forces prevented them from doing so.
In Iran, rallies also took place outside the French and British embassies in Tehran, the country’s capital. Demonstrators chanted “death to France, England, America, and the Zionists,” according to a video published by Iran state-run RNA news yesterday morning. Rallies also took place in other cities, including Esfahan and Qom.
Hundreds of people rallied in several areas in Tunis, Tunisia, state-run TAP news agency reported. TAP said: “Mass protests were held on Tuesday night in several areas in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against Israeli bombardment of Gaza.”
In Istanbul, Turkish security forces used water cannon and pepper spray to disperse protesters, who managed to force their way into a compound, where the Israeli consulate is located.
Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, called on “all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that the attack on the hospital was “the latest example of Israel’s attacks devoid of the most basic human values.”
Meanwhile, Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said yesterday that Egyptians in their millions would reject the forced displacement of Palestinians into Sinai, adding that any such move would turn the peninsula into a base for attacks against Israel.
The Gaza Strip is effectively under Israeli control and Palestinians could instead be moved to Israel’s Negev desert “till the militants are dealt with,” Sisi told a joint news conference in Cairo with German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
The border between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip is the site of the only crossing from the Palestinian territory that is not controlled by Israel.
“What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refugee and migrate to Egypt, which should not be accepted,” said Sisi.
“Egypt rejects any attempt to resolve the Palestinian issue by military means or through the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land, which would come at the expense of the countries of the region,” he said.
Sisi said the Egyptian people would “go out and protest in their millions… if called upon to do so” against any displacement of Gaza’s residents to Sinai.
Referring to the Egyptian position, Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, called for rallying around this position and supporting it on the popular and Arab official level because this represents real protection for our Palestinian people at a Beirut news conference.
And in Israel, there is little love shown for Netanyahu as his government is being widely accused of dropping the country’s guard, and engulfing the country in a Gaza war that is rattling the region.
An Israeli cabinet minister was barred from a hospital visitors’ entrance. Another’s bodyguards were drenched with coffee thrown by a bereaved man. A third had “traitor” and “imbecile” shouted at her as she came to comfort families evacuated during the horror.
Whatever ensues, a day of judgment looms for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after a record-long career of political comebacks. Public fury over some 1,300 Israeli fatalities has been further fueled by Netanyahu’s signature self-styling as a Churchillian strategist, who foresaw national-security threats.
Meanwhile, the United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution yesterday that would have called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.
The vote on the Brazilian-drafted text was twice delayed in the past couple of days as the United States tries to broker aid access to Gaza. Twelve members voted in favour of the draft text yesterday, while Russia and Britain abstained. Washington traditionally shields its ally, Israel, from any Security Council’s action.
The draft resolution also urged Israel, without naming it, to rescind its order for civilians and U.N. staff in Gaza to move to the south of the Palestinian enclave and condemns the terrorist attacks by Hamas.
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