US President Joe Biden, visiting Israel on Wednesday, supported the version of the Israeli authorities blaming Palestinian fighters for the strike which killed hundreds of people in a hospital in Gaza.
“I was deeply saddened and shocked by the explosion in the hospital in Gaza yesterday (Tuesday). And based on what I saw, it appears that this was carried out by the opposing side, not by you,” the American president said, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
“We must also keep in mind that Hamas does not represent all of the Palestinian people and has only brought them suffering,” he added.
On Tuesday, he said he was “outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion”.
The American president, who arrived Wednesday morning at Tel Aviv airport where he was welcomed by Mr. Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, is due during his visit to meet families of victims of the bloody attack by Hamas commandos on Israeli soil on October 7.
This attack sparked a new war between Israel and Hamas which left thousands dead.
“Americans cry with you,” Mr. Biden told Mr. Netanyahu.
He told the American president on Wednesday that the “civilized world” must unite against Hamas in power in Gaza.
Joe Biden was also scheduled to participate in a summit in Jordan with Jordanian King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, but Amman canceled it after the explosion at the ‘hospital.
John Kirby, spokesperson for the American National Security Council, assured that he would call the Palestinian leader and the Egyptian president on the plane home on Wednesday evening.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most of them civilians killed on the day of the October 7 attack, the deadliest since the establishment of the State of Israel.
Israeli retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 3,000 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, according to local authorities.