Biden reassures the Israeli people of U.S. support but warns against overreach. In Chicago, thousands gather in support of the Palestinian people. Egypt’s president vows to open border crossing into Gaza to let supplies through.
President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israel during his visit there Wednesday and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital that prompted mass protests in Arab nations, Washington and Chicago apparently was not carried out by the Israeli military.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But he said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren’t sure what caused the blast, which sparked protests throughout the Middle East.
The attack on Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital left hundreds dead and added pressure on an already strained health system in the region.
Biden later said he based his conclusion on “the data I was shown by my Defense Department.”
Israel said Wednesday its radar as well as independent video showed a rocket in a barrage fired by Palestinian militants misfired and caused a large explosion just as the blast hit the hospital. It said there was no crater, which would have been present with an airstrike, and it released a recording it said was between two Hamas militants who said the blast was believed to be a misfire by the group Islamic Jihad.
Islamic Jihad dismissed Israel’s claims, pointing to Israel’s order that the hospital be evacuated in recent days and reports of a previous strike at the hospital that wounded four people as proof that it was an Israeli target.Protestors demand Israel end ‘its murderous siege’
Despite Biden’s assessment, thousands of supporters of the Palestinian cause gathered in downtown Chicago on Wednesday evening, accusing Israel of deliberately attacking the hospital and calling on the United States government to end its support of the country.
