US President Joe Biden pledged to help Israel and the Palestinians during a quick visit on Wednesday, but a deadly hospital blast that he ascribed to an errant rocket fired by Gaza militants derailed talks to prevent the war spreading.
The US president’s whistlestop trip came just hours after Tuesday night’s blast at the Ahli Arab hospital in the Gaza Strip, sparking fury in Arab countries which blame Israel and protests in Muslim countries from Egypt to Pakistan.
Raising fears of wider instability, protesters staged anti-Israeli demonstrations around the Middle East over the fireball that engulfed the Gaza Strip’s Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital late on Tuesday, which Palestinian officials said killed 471 people.
They blamed what they said was an Israeli air strike, while Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied responsibility.