How Gaza hospital bombing has made Biden’s visit to Israel more challenging

The United States is Israel’s closest ally. In the war against Hamas, it has stood by Jerusalem, sending warships and jets quickly. Then came the visit by US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who visited the conflict-hit nation (twice in a matter of days) and then other countries in West Asia in an attempt to ensure that the tensions don’t escalate further. Now US president Joe Biden will land in Israel on Wednesday in a high-stakes visit. Though the visit was planned earlier, it comes at a time when anti-Israel voices are growing louder. An explosion at the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City packed with injured Palestinians and others seeking refuge has left 500 dead. While Hamas has blamed an Israeli airstrike for the hospital attack, the Israeli military alleges that a rocket was misfired by other Palestinian militants. As the two sides trade barbs, the blast has left the world, especially the Arab nations, shell-shocked and seething. Biden too was outraged by the explosion. “I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza and the terrible loss of life that resulted,” Biden said in a statement. “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,” it added. However, the words were not enough to placate the Arab world. The hospital blast has upended Biden’s visit. We tell you how. [caption id=“attachment_13264322” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] People light flares and shout slogans during a protest by the Turkish Communist party to show solidarity with Palestinians, in Istanbul, Turkey, on 17 October. Hamas said hundreds of people were killed in an airstrike Tuesday on the hospital in Gaza City, after intensifying bombardments near towns in southern Gaza. AP[/caption] What is Biden’s plan in Israel? Biden lands in Tel Aviv past noon (IST) where he will meet with Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two are expected to hold “a very small restricted bilateral meeting”. The American president will then meet with the Israeli war Cabinet. Biden “will be asking tough questions”, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “He’ll be asking them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel, but he will be asking some questions of them.” After the political engagements, Biden “will have a chance to meet with some of the Israeli first responders who are bravely putting themselves in harm’s way in response to these Hamas attacks” and then families who have lost loved ones or whose kin are held hostage, according to an update Kirby about the planned itinerary. He will also make public remarks followed by a short meeting with Israeli President Herzog, reports the BBC. Also see: In Images | Death and doom at Gaza hospital, where 500 were killed in blast What about the meeting with Arab leaders? Biden had planned to visit Amman, Jordan to meet with Arab leaders but it was cancelled after the hospital blast in Gaza City. Following the bombing, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, cancelled a summit the country was to host in Amman with Biden and the Egyptian and Palestinian leaders. Biden will now visit only Israel, a White House official said. According to Kirby, the president “intends to speak” with both his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al Sisi “on the flight home”. After Israel, Biden was expected to head to Jordan and meet Sisi and Abbas. Jordan’s King Abdullah would have hosted the four-way summit, which would have on its agenda the need to get humanitarian assistance to Gaza to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and tamp down the conflict with Israel, reports Reuters. Safadi said that the meeting would be held at a time when the parties could agree to end the “war and the massacres against Palestinians”, blaming Israel with its military campaign for pushing the region to “the brink of the abyss.” [caption id=“attachment_13264152” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] US president Joe Biden walks up the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on 17 October, as he heads to Israel. AP[/caption] What will Biden achieve from the visit? It was only after Israel committed to open Gaza for humanitarian aid that Biden agreed to make the wartime visit to Tel Aviv. The trip was planned as a dramatic show of support for Israel, as it prepares for the next stage of its retaliatory response to the 7 October Hamas assault. It is the strongest push by the US to ease the suffering of civilians in Gaza and allow those who want to leave a safe exit, according to a report on CNN. But the hospital horror has complicated matters and only added to the challenges Washington faces in easing tensions in West Asia. Millions of civilians, including Americans, are stuck in Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. The US officials want humanitarian plans for Gaza fully signed off on and implemented before the start of the invasion, the people familiar with the matter were quoted as saying by CNN. This, they said, was among Biden’s main objectives during his visit to Tel Aviv. [caption id=“attachment_13264162” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] US president Joe Biden will hold a ‘a very small restricted bilateral meeting’ with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. File photo/Reuters[/caption] During calls with Netanyahu, Biden has reportedly spoken about the need to protect civilian life. Now he will be able to further emphasise those views with the Israeli leader with whom he has a deep understanding, says the report. Earlier, Blinken talked about an agreement on humanitarian relief. However, he did not announce any concrete details. There has been no sign of any safe corridors being set up for Gazans to exit the enclave amid airstrikes. Now it remains to be seen if Biden can advance plans to make aid available to Palestinians stuck in Gaza and ensure their safe exit. Also read: First Antony Blinken, now Joe Biden: Can US contain the Israel-Hamas war? What changes after the hospital blast? Biden’s trip was expected to be challenging but now he will be be flying into an even more volatile situation than before, with the hospital strike sparking anger across the region. Furious protesters tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman where Biden was due to meet the other leaders, while in Tehran hundreds rallied outside the French and British embassies, reports AFP. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah called for a “day of rage” over the strike to coincide with Biden’s arrival, fueling fears of the very escalation by Tehran and its allies that Biden’s visit is supposed to warn against. [caption id=“attachment_13264192” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Turkish riot police use pepper spray to disperse pro-Palestinian demonstrators during a protest in front of the Israeli Embassy in Ankara, Turkey on 18 October. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in the blast at Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other  Reuters[/caption] The president contemplated carefully before accepting the invitation to visit Netanyahu, who has ordered preparations for what is expected to be a bloody ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza. There was always a risk that by coming to Israel Biden would find himself too closely associated with the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, which has killed more than 3,000 people and levelled huge swaths of the enclave. Even before the hospital attack, The New York Times called it a “trip fraught with risks.” Anger over the hospital strike could meanwhile undermine the wider purpose of Biden’s visit as he tries to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from engulfing the wider West Asia. But Biden is a strong believer in the power of personal diplomacy. His visit to Tel Aviv will be a big test of America’s influence over West Asia. With inputs from agencies