Biden in Israel after up to 500 killed in strike on Gaza hospital

The health ministry in the Gaza Strip says hundreds of victims are trapped under the rubble of al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital after up to 500 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday. 

US President Biden landed just before 11 a.m. local (4 a.m. eastern) in Israel on Wednesday to signal Washington’s support, his second visit to a war zone this year.

Biden, who has expressed “iron-clad” support for Israel in its war on Gaza, was welcomed on the tarmac by hardline prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But the horror of the hospital deaths threatened to derail his high-stakes visit, with Jordan cancelling a summit where King Abdullah II had been due to host Biden, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Thousands of civilians were seeking medical treatment and shelter in the hospital from relentless Israeli airstrikes when the attack took place.

The attack is the deadliest Israeli airstrike since 2008, the Palestinian Civil Defense said.

“The massacre at al-Ahli al-Arab Hospital is unprecedented in our history. While we’ve witnessed tragedies in past wars and days, but what took place tonight is tantamount to genocide,” spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.

The media office of Hamas described the attack as a “war crime.”

“The hospital was housing hundreds of sick and wounded, and people forcibly displaced from their homes” because of other strikes, a statement said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) condemned the Israeli attack as genocide.