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Middle East conflict

Biden blames 'the other team,' not Israel for hospital attack

Arab media outlets reported on October 17 that Israeli airstrikes on the central part of Gaza City had hit a hospital

US President Joe Biden AP Photo/Evan Vucci

US President Joe Biden

© AP Photo/Evan Vucci

TEL AVIV, October 18. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden has blamed Tuesday’s attack on Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza not on Israel, but on "the other team."

"It appears that it was done by the other team, not you, but some people are not sure," Biden said about Tuesday's deadly Gaza hospital explosion in remarks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday morning during a snap visit to Israel.

Earlier on Wednesday, President Biden's plane landed in Tel Aviv. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said that the US leader was traveling to Israel to demonstrate unwavering support for the Jewish state against the backdrop of actions by the radical Palestinian movement Hamas, as well as for consultations on further steps. Biden was scheduled to head for Amman afterward for talks with King Abdullah II, of Jordan, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The meeting was canceled after the strike on Al-Ahli hospital.

Arab media outlets reported on October 17 that Israeli airstrikes on the central part of Gaza City had hit a hospital. The attack killed over 500 people and left hundreds wounded, according to the Palestinian radical group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denied responsibility, saying in a statement that the powerful explosion in the Gaza City hospital had resulted from a misfired rocket launched from within the Palestinian enclave.

Three days of mourning have been declared in Palestine and Syria. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas refusing to attend the summit in Amman scheduled for October 19.

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