President Joe Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport, October 18, 2023
Oct 18, 2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Washington would provide Israel with everything it needed to defend itself as it wages war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Biden, who landed in Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early on Wednesday, said Hamas was worse than the Islamic State group for its killings of Israeli civilians in a surprise attack on October 7 which sparked the latest Israel-Palestinian violence.Follow our live blog for all the latest developments.
Biden arrives on solidarity visit to Israel
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.
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.
Under unusually tight security even for the US president, Biden and
Netanyahu chatted briefly on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport surrounded by
their guards before their motorcades set off for a Tel Aviv hotel where they will
hold talks.
Hundreds of armed police and troops were stationed around the seafront Tel
Aviv hotel where Netanyahu and Biden will meet, with armed snipers on the roofs
of nearby villas.
President
Joe Biden said Wednesday that an explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital appears to
not have been caused by Israel.
“Based on
what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,”
Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But
Biden said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren't sure what caused
the blast.
The
Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike caused the
destruction. The Israeli military denied involvement and blamed a misfired
rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group. However,
that organization also rejected responsibility.
Agencies