Chaos curtails Biden trip
President Biden knew when he planned his trip to Israel that it came at a volatile moment but he hadn’t anticipated quite such a difficult backdrop: the US leader arrived in Tel Aviv just hours after a devastating explosion at a hospital in Gaza City last night.
According to Hamas, 471 Palestinians were killed and more than 314 were wounded at Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab hospital in what the terrorist group has labelled an “Israeli massacre”.
Biden has thrown his weight behind Israel’s explanation, saying that Pentagon intelligence supports IDF evidence which points to “an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza”, rather than an Israeli airstrike, as the cause of the explosion.
Back in Britain, Rishi Sunak said that British intelligence services are working rapidly to independently establish the facts.
Israel insists it already has proof, including audio recordings it has published of the moment Hamas commanders realise that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – another militant group operating in Gaza with its own rocket arsenal – was responsible for the explosion.
The evidence looks convincing. The rush to judgment last night left major news organisations – including the BBC and the New York Times – looking more than hasty. The claim that it was an Israeli strike was repeated and amplified to tens of millions of viewers and readers almost instantly.
But, against a backdrop of Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza, persuading all of its Arab neighbours of its innocence will be a tall order. All around the region – in Lebanon, Jordan, Libya and Iran – furious protestors took to the streets last night blaming Israel for the explosion. Lebanon has vowed a “day of revenge” in retaliation for the al-Ahli incident, heightening fears that the conflict could spill out into a wider war.
What’s more, the tragic incident has thwarted a vital chance to cool tensions: Joe Biden is on his way back to Washington now after the important second leg of his trip – a summit in Jordan – was called off. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas pulled out of the summit late last night and Jordan’s foreign minister, who also blamed Israel for the hospital blast, said the meeting could only be held when the parties could agree to end the “war and the massacres against Palestinians”.
Regardless of the circumstances, the horrific scenes at the Al Ahli hospital have changed the mood.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to ease the “epic suffering.”
Corbynite Labour MP Richard Burgon has laid a parliamentary motion calling for the same, to prevent further loss of life, backed by 35 MPs, including some Conservatives.
Sunak says it is too early for a ceasefire and Israel “has a right to defend itself.” This sets him more in line with Washington. However, it’s worth adding that Biden has persuaded Israel to make one important concession today: following talks with his American counterpart today, Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to let aid into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
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