By Brady Knox, Breaking News Reporter & Mike Brest, Defense Reporter. Media: Washingtonexaminer
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas canceled a planned meeting with President Joe Biden following a strike against a Christian Gaza hospital.
The Al Ahli Baptist Hospital was hit by a bomb or rocket Tuesday night, with Palestinian authorities saying the death toll exceeds 500 people. Hamas, the terrorist organization that is the de facto government of the Gaza Strip, immediately accused Israel of being behind the strike, but an investigation from the Israeli Defense Forces attributed the strike to a different Gaza-based terror group known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“From the analysis of the operational systems of the IDF, an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed in the vicinity of the hospital, when it was hit,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, IDF spokesman. “According to intelligence information, from several sources we have, the [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] organization is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which reportedly participated in the unprecedented terrorist attacks on Israel earlier this month, is a “wholly owned subsidiary of Tehran,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Aaron David Miller, a former State Department historian who has coordinated previous rounds of Arab-Israeli negotiations, said last week.
Abbas and most Muslim authorities have placed the blame on Israel, with the Palestinian Authority president canceling a planned visit with Biden in protest.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The meeting was supposed to take place on Wednesday, and the cancellation was first made known to the Associated Press by a senior Palestinian official. Soon after, Biden announced that his Jordan visit would be canceled altogether, and he expressed his condolences for the victims of the attack.
Biden and his top officials have repeatedly publicly shared their support for Israel, and he has provided it with military equipment for the war it has declared on Hamas. The United States also strengthened its military posture in the Middle East to deter any other anti-Israel actor in the area from joining the battle.
Biden later put out a statement on the situation, saying he was “outraged and deeply saddened” by the event.
“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, and the terrible loss of life that resulted. Immediately upon hearing this news, I spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel and have directed my national security team to continue gathering information about what exactly happened. The United States stands unequivocally for the protection of civilian life during conflict and we mourn the patients, medical staff and other innocents killed or wounded in this tragedy,” the statement read.
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