Biden says hospital blast appears to have been caused by Palestinian rocket

In Israel, Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. A trip to Amman, where Biden was to meet with the Jordanian king and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, has been cancelled after the latter declared three days of mourning after an explosion at a Gaza hospital overnight Tuesday that according to the Israeli military was hit by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket. Palestinian sources reported that hundreds were killed in the blast.

US defence spokesperson John Kirby said: "Israel has categorically denied that they were involved in that. So, I'll let them speak to—to their statement on that," adding, "I wouldn't characterize this as an investigation."

Biden "has directed the national security team to gather as much information and context as possible. We all want to know how this could have happened," he said.

In Israel, Biden will "get a sense from the Israelis about the situation on the ground and, more critically, their objectives, their plans, their intentions in the days and weeks ahead," Kirby told reporters.

Biden is "also going to make it clear that we continue to want to see this conflict not widen, not expand, not deepen. And he'll make that point very clearly," said Kirby.

Kirby added that Biden will tell Israel that "we want to see humanitarian assistance flow in, and it's not just a one-and-done. We want to see it be able to be sustained—food, water, obviously, electrical power, medicine—all the things that the—the people of Gaza are going to continue to need as this conflict continues to go on. So, he'll make that case very, very clearly."

Gaza is run by Hamas, which Washington has designated as a terrorist organization since 1997. The United States has acknowledged that Hamas appropriates humanitarian aid and uses it for military purposes.

JNS.org contributed reporting to this story.