President Biden departed for the Middle East on Air Force One Tuesday but the visit will now be a single-country trip. The Washington Post reports that the Jordan leg of the trip was called off after an alleged Israeli airstrike killed hundreds of people at a Gaza hospital Tuesday and Biden will now only visit Israel. The president had been due to meet Arab leaders in Amman but Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas pulled out after the hospital blast. Ayman Safadi, Jordan's foreign minister, said the country would only host the summit when all participants agreed its purpose was to "stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians, and deliver the aid they deserve," the AP reports.
"I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted," Biden said in a post on X while en route to Tel Aviv. "Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and have directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened." The US, he said "stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy." Israel has denied responsibility, saying the explosion was caused by a militant rocket.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi had also been due to attend the summit, which would have addressed issues including humanitarian aid, Al Jazeera reports. Huge protests broke out in Amman and numerous other cities in the region after the explosion, which is believed to have killed around 500 people in the single largest loss of life in Gaza since Hamas took control in 2007, the Guardian reports. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
