Seemingly absolving Israel from Tuesday's massive explosion at a Gaza City hospital, US President Joe Biden said that the attack appeared to have been caused by the "other team". At least 500 people were killed in the bombing, of which Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed group denied responsibility.
Biden, who landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden told Netanyahu during a meeting, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The US president, however, said that there were “a lot of people out there” who were unsure of the cause of the explosion at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital.
The hospital had housed injured people and those seeking shelter. A video that the AP confirmed was from the hospital showed torn bodies, many of them children, scattered across the hospital premises.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said that an Israeli airstrike was responsible for the bombing. However, Israel shared a footage early Wednesday claiming that it captured the moment the rocket was misfired by Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organisation Palestinian Islamic Jihad at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital.
However, the group denied responsibility of the bombing.
“The accusations promoted by the enemy are baseless,” Islamic Jihad reportedly said, adding that it “does not use places of worship or public facilities, especially hospitals, as military centres or weapons stores.”
Jordan cancels summit with Biden and Arab leaders
As the Gaza hospital bombing triggered blame-game and anger in the region, Jordan cancelled a summit in Amman, where Biden was scheduled to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said in a statement that the hospital bombing "cannot be tolerated" and it "would not be able to stop the war for now".
'Respect the humanity of the Palestinians'
In the statement Al-Safadi said that “following consultations with our Palestinian and Egyptian brothers, and after a discussion with the United States, we decided not to hold this summit. We aim from this summit, if it is held, to produce one solution that has no other, which is to stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians, and deliver the aid they deserve.”
He also held Israel responsible for "massacres" against the Palestinians. “Refraining from holding the summit also due to the ongoing Israeli massacres against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the most recent of which was the Baptist Hospital massacre, which came as a shock to everyone and cannot be tolerated,” he said in the statement.
