Joe Biden tells Israel’s Netanyahu: Seems hospital strike ‘done by other team’
US president Joe Biden told Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the hospital strike on Gaza seems to have been ‘done by other team’, in reference to Palestinian militants.
He said he was “sad and outraged” by an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip which Hamas said killed hundreds of people.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Joe Biden told Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But he said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren’t sure what caused the blast.
Joe Biden said that Washington would provide Israel with everything it needed to defend itself. Hamas is worse than Islamic State for its killings of Israeli civilians in a surprise attack on October 7, the US leader said.
Joe Biden also said that 31 Americans were among the more than 1,300 Israelis killed in Hamas’ attack. “We have to bear in mind that Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people and has brought them only suffering,” Joe Biden said.
The US president said that he was encouraging Netanyahu to ensure “life-saving capacity to help the Palestinians who are innocent and caught in the middle of this” while saying that was “proud” to visit Israel.
“I want to say to the people of Israel — their courage, their commitment and their bravery is stunning,” Joe Biden said.
“Americans are grieving, they really are,” Joe Biden said. “Americans are worried.”
Benjamin Netanyahu thanked visiting US president for his “unequivocal support” in the Gaza war and gave an updated death toll from the Hamas cross-border attack that triggered it.
“I know I speak for all the people of Israel when I say thank you Mr. President, thank you for standing with Israel today, tomorrow and always,” he said.
“On October 7, Hamas murdered 1,400 Israelis, maybe more,” Benjamin Netanyahu told Biden in televised remarks as he called on countries to rally behind Israel as it wages what he described as a war “between the forces of civilisation and the forces of barbarism”.