The US president's whistlestop trip came just hours after Tuesday night's blast at the Ahli Arab hospital in the Gaza Strip, sparking fury in Arab countries which blame Israel and protests in Muslim countries from Egypt to Pakistan.
TEL AVIV - Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered full US backing for Israel in person, on a solidarity visit in which he blamed Islamist militants for a deadly rocket strike on a Gaza hospital and announced the resumption of urgent aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave.
In Tel Aviv, Biden said he was "deeply saddened and outraged" by the blast, but added: "Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you." But he added: "I caution this while you feel that rage: don't be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice we also made mistakes," he said.
Moments after Biden took off in Air Force One, rocket alerts were activated in central Israel, east of Tel Aviv. Police said rockets fell near the Lebanese border, causing damage but no casualties. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation - a 57-member bloc of Muslim-majority countries - denounced Israel's backers for granting the country "impunity" in its war with Gaza.
"As I entered the hospital, I heard the explosion. I saw a massive fire," said Gaza resident Adnan al-Naqa. "The entire square was on fire. There were bodies everywhere, children, women and elderly people." "The situation in Gaza is spiralling out of control," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire" and warned Israel against "the collective punishment of the Palestinian people".
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