Tel Aviv: US President Joe Biden arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, marking an extraordinary wartime visit to Israel amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. Biden’s visit comes a day after Tuesday’s bombing of a Gaza hospital that was sheltering thousands of displaced people. This also led to the cancellation of the second leg of the President’s visit to Jordan, where he was to meet Arab leaders.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken became the first top official of the Biden administration to visit the war-torn nation. Since then he has made two consecutive trips.
Biden will first hold a “small restricted bilateral meeting” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the White House.
After that, he will meet with Netanyahu’s war cabinet, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Biden will also meet with Israeli first responders and “families of those who have lost loved ones in Israel and some who still do not know the fate of their loved ones,” he added. Later in the day, he will speak to his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog.
Informed sources have said the president will focus more on managing a complex situation and less on achieving clear deliverables.
After Israel, Biden was to travel to Amman where he was scheduled to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
But the summit was canceled due to the bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which Palestine blames on Israel. But the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have “categorically” denied any involvement and instead blamed a “failed rocket launch” by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Regarding the cancellation, the White House said it was a mutual decision, adding that Biden and the King of Jordan agreed that “now is not the time to try to move this meeting forward, especially With President Abbas, it is very clear – understandable” So – he wanted to return home for three days of mourning for the hospital blast victims.
