You need to know what happened during the war in Israel
The Blinken ‘Revisited’: How the White House is preparing for a trip to Tel Aviv, and a new speaker for the House of Representatives
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The White House is providing less public information about the trip than usual because of the risks of traveling to the region right now. During Blinken’s visit to Tel Aviv, sirens went off as a warning of new rocket attacks, and the secretary was moved to a bunker for about five minutes.
The House of Representatives is set to vote on a new speaker later today. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is the nominee after Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., dropped out. It’s unclear whether he has enough votes to get the job.
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“The timing and optics of such a significant visit couldn’t be any worse,” said Charles Lister, the director of counterterrorism at the Middle East Institute. It doesn’t really matter at this point, regardless of what happened at the hospital in Gaza. The tensions have been inflamed beyond anything we’ve seen over the last week.”
Air Force One left, carrying an American president bound for Tel Aviv at the same time as Gaza was facing a humanitarian catastrophe and angry people were in the Middle East.
As Air Force One sat on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, White House officials told reporters that the summit in Jordan planned for Wednesday had been abruptly canceled. For a moment, it was unclear to reporters and some administration officials aboard the plane whether it would take off to the Middle East at all. Mr. Biden had boarded without answering questions.
The goal was to talk about trying to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has been running out of food and water in recent months. Civilians — including American citizens in Gaza — have been unable to leave through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
Biden’s team has been pressing Israel and Egypt to allow food, water and medicine into Gaza — and to let civilians out. On the way to Tel Aviv, Kirby expressed some optimism that could happen soon.
Biden wants to know more about efforts to find and free American citizens that were taken during the attacks. Biden will meet with people who lost loved ones during the attacks, as well as first responders, Kirby said.
Biden will ask congress for funding for additional military aid to Israel later this week, as he pledges support for Israel in its war against Hamas.
“He’ll be asking some tough questions – he’ll be asking them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel but he’ll be asking some questions of them,” Kirby told reporters on the eve of Biden’s visit.
Biden said in a statement that he is “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza.” “The United States 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.”
Biden and Netanyahu spoke after the hospital explosion. John Kirby said that Israel had categorically and stridently denied responsibility.
Abbas cancelled his meeting with Biden, and called for three days of mourning. Biden said he would postpone the visit after he talked to King Abdullah.
The Attack at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Kyiv, Syria, and the West Bank: A White House Report on the State of the State
The explosion at the Al Ahili Arab Hospital, which killed hundreds of people, triggered immediate protests across the Middle East, and strong condemnation of Israel by Arab governments, which marked a dramatic escalation in the violence gripping the region.
Biden has traveled to war zones before, including a trip to Ukraine in February. That travel wasn’t revealed until the president was on the ground in Kyiv.
Protests had already erupted after the hospital strike in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, to name a few. Protests in the West Bank broke out with protesters chanting slogans against Israel, and police trying to break them up.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters late Tuesday evening that an initial internal review showed it was a misfired rocket from Gaza, based on footage from Israeli drones and chatter among militants calling it a PIJ misfire.
“We don’t see a direct hit at the hospital, we see kind of a hit in the parking lot but we’re still finishing the investigation of that,” he said, before adding that Israel continues to gather intel, including off Al-Jazeera live footage and other sources.
According to him, before the Baptist Al-Ahli hospital was hit, Israel had attacked it twice. He said this was followed by a warning from Israel asking why the hospital had not yet been evacuated.
The White House stated that the president looks forward to consulting with these leaders in person soon, and that he will remain closely involved with them over the coming days.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. There are too many lives and the fate of the region hangs in the balance.
Israel Arrives in Israel as Gaza reels from deadly hospital explosion: Witnesses at the bombing of a Gaza hospital, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry
Saudi Arabia slammed Israel in a statement, saying it had condemned the heinous crime committed by the Israel occupation forces.
Hamas is continuing to launch missiles at Israel. Israel’s Iron Dome defense system intercepts most. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have air raid sirens.
Footage online and carried on channels like Al-Jazeera show the carnage of dead bodies strewn on the grass outside the hospital. Children and women with injuries were screaming, shaking or still in shock at other nearby hospitals. Medics have run out in Gaza at some of its hospitals, where medical supplies like painkillers have run out.
Since then, Israeli air and naval strikes on Gaza have killed at least 3,000 people, a third of them children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. That death toll was before the hospital strike. More than a thousand people are missing, presumed dead or alive under the rubble of thousands of homes that have been destroyed.
The Health Ministry official gave a press conference after the hospital strike. He stood at a podium, surrounded by the dead bodies of children, including babies.
Dr. Fadel, a doctor at the Baptist Al-Ahli hospital, told NPR that he heard a loud explosion while he was operating on patients. He ran and saw dead and wounded people.
“We found one baby on the roof of the hospital,” he said, describing the horrific scene and impact of the explosion. Many babies died yesterday. Many babies.”
Gazan Emergency Medical Response: Israel’s Disruption in the Light of Nearby Security Forces, and U.N. Relief Agency OCHA
Israel has bombed the crossing in recent days, including as Egyptian workers repair damage, according to Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s Foreign Minister.
Israel struck a U.N. shelter for Palestinians, killing six people and causing thousands of refugees to flee, according to the UN agency.
The U.N. relief agency, OCHA, says Gaza has been under full electricity blackout and that its largest hospital only has a few more days of fuel for its generators after the World Health Organization delivered locally stored fuel to it.
Israel partially resumed water supply to the eastern part of Gaza this week, but the UN says that only 14 percent of Gaza’s population have access to water.
“People have resorted to consuming brackish water extracted from agricultural wells, increasing exposure to pesticides and other chemicals, placing the population at risk of death or infectious disease outbreak,” the U.N. relief agency said.
