Biden, Arab leaders agree to postpone meeting after Gaza hospital tragedy

WASHINGTON (AA) – US President Joe Biden has agreed to postpone a meeting with Arab leaders that was to take place amid soaring casualties in the besieged Gaza Strip, the White House said Tuesday.

“After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by President (Mahmoud) Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and President (Abdel Fattah al-) Sisi of Egypt,” a White House official told pool reporters.

“He looks forward to consulting in person with these leaders soon and agreed to remain regularly and directly engaged with each of them over the coming days,” the official added.

Biden further “sent his deepest condolences” for what the White House described as “the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded,” the official added.

The official did not ascribe blame for the bombing of the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of over 500 people.

Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Gaza-based Health Ministry, told Anadolu that the hospital was struck in an Israeli airstrike.

Footage on social media showed corpses scattered across the grounds of the hospital, which was reportedly run by the Church of England.

According to an Anadolu reporter, thousands of Palestinians were at the hospital when the building came under bombardment.

The Palestinian group Hamas called Israel’s targeting of the hospital an act of “genocide.”