US President Joe Biden landed in Israel Wednesday on a solidarity visit following Hamas attacks, under the shadow of a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital that has inflamed regional tensions.
Biden told Netanyahu that Washington would provide Israel everything it needed to defend itself amid the continuing war in Gaza.
Biden added that 31 Americans were among the more than 1,400 people killed inside Israel in the October 7 attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally welcomed Biden on the tarmac, putting his arms around the US president who then clasped his hands around Netanyahu in a sign of the newfound bond between the two leaders.
Hundreds of armed police and troops were stationed around the seafront Tel Aviv hotel where
Tel Aviv is just 65 kilometres (40 miles) from the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-ruled territory which Israel has been pounding since a devastating October 7 attack by Hamas.
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Anger after attack
The mass killing at the hospital has spurred widespread international condemnation and mass protests broke out in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and the West Bank as well as angry mobs targeting Israeli embassies in several countries.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday cited a marked rise in antisemitism in Canada following Palestinian group Hamas’ attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent deadly air strikes in Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that “nothing can justify targeting civilians” the strike and called for humanitarian access to the coastal strip “without delay.
The World Health Organization condemned a deadly strike Tuesday on a hospital in the Gaza Strip and demanded the immediate protection of civilians and health care in the Palestinian enclave.