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Israel ramped up airstrikes Tuesday against Hamas targets in Gaza and warned that any Hezbollah fighters approaching the northern border with Lebanon “will be killed,” while fears mounted in Washington over danger President Biden may face on his high-stakes trip to the region.
Mr. Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday, a day after an explosion at a hospital in Gaza reportedly killed more than 500 people. Hamas blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, but Israeli military officials said the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket from the militants.
The blast had threatened to derail Mr. Biden’s trip, as a scheduled summit in Jordan was abruptly canceled after several Arab leaders pulled out of the meeting. The White House later confirmed that Mr. Biden would scrap his planned trip to Jordan.
Hamas lobbed more rockets at Israel while Israeli forces continued a near-relentless bombardment of targets across Gaza. U.S. officials scrambled behind the scenes to allow humanitarian aid into the densely packed territory.
Gaza is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. International aid groups say roughly half have been displaced in the days since Israel launched its fierce counterattack against Hamas in response to the terrorist group’s brutal assault Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and at least 27 Americans.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and has systematically targeted the group’s leadership with airstrikes. Meanwhile, Palestinian civilians are struggling to find safety within the war zone. One Israeli strike on Tuesday hit Ayman Nofal, a top Hamas commander and the third high-profile militant leader killed in the past several days.
The hospital explosion, meanwhile, sparked immediate political fallout that could at least partially overshadow Mr. Biden’s appearance in Israel.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose offices are in the West Bank, not Gaza, first canceled plans for a meeting with Mr. Biden on Wednesday in protest of what he called Israel’s involvement in the hospital blast.
The meeting was to have included Mr. Biden, Mr Abbas, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Later Tuesday, Jordanian officials said they were canceling the summit. The White House then confirmed that Mr. Biden’s entire Jordan visit was canceled.
“After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders” and Egypt’s president, a White House official said in a statement.
“The president sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded. 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.”
With the diplomatic front in flux, Israel is amassing ground troops and weaponry along its border with Gaza ahead of a highly anticipated ground incursion into the territory.
The United Nations and other groups warn that such an incursion will likely deepen the tragic humanitarian situation in the impoverished Palestinian enclave.
Food, water and medicine are all in short supply in Gaza, local officials and international observers say, though Israel insists Hamas is to blame for basing its terrorist operations in civilian areas of the territory.
Biden in Israel
White House officials said Mr. Biden initially planned to travel to Jordan before visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. Jordan is one of a handful of influential Arab nations that have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been engaged in shuttle diplomacy with leaders of Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Administration officials say Mr. Biden’s trip is part of a widening U.S. effort to rally international support behind Israel and blunt the growing narrative promoted by Iran and others in the region that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is inhumane and perhaps even constitutes war crimes.
Officials in Gaza say 2,778 people have been killed and another 9,700 wounded by the Israeli attacks. More than two-thirds of the dead are children, Gaza officials said. The death toll exceeds that of the 2014 Gaza war, which lasted more than six weeks.
Mr. Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other top American officials have made public appearances in Israel despite the mounting death toll and obvious risks.
Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for meetings with Israeli military leaders.
Some U.S. lawmakers warn that a sitting American president traveling to such a dangerous region at such a delicate moment is an entirely different matter and presents serious security concerns.
“I wish the president wasn’t going over there. I think it’s a gutsy, bold move, but I really wish he wasn’t going over there,” Rep. Tim Burchett, Tennessee Republican, told NewsNation late Monday.
Mr. Burchett said his father “fought the Japanese in the Pacific, and he used to say, ‘Buddy, when somebody’s willing to lose their life to take you out, there’s not a whole lot you can do sometimes.’”
Mr. Biden traveled to Ukraine in February, another visit to an active war zone that required extensive planning and security precautions far beyond those routinely taken for presidential travel.
Such precautions are also expected to play out this week, given Hamas’ near-constant rocket barrages into Israel and the growing threat from the terrorist group Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Warnings to Hezbollah
The U.S. is surging military assets to the region ahead of Mr. Biden’s visit and is even considering deploying additional ground troops.
The Pentagon has ordered two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s coast. Mr. Austin issued “prepare to deploy” orders Tuesday for about 2,000 personnel for possible support of Israel, Pentagon officials said.
The Defense Department said select military units are in a heightened state of readiness, which improves the Pentagon’s ability to quickly respond to the security situation in the Middle East.
“No decisions have been made to deploy any forces at this time,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The secretary will continue to assess our force posture and remain in close contact with allies and partners.”
The growing U.S. military footprint is meant to be a deterrent against Hezbollah and its benefactor, Iran, should either decide to support Hamas by launching a major attack on Israel.
There were growing signs Tuesday that an already simmering conflict between Israel and Hezbollah near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon could soon erupt into a full-blown war.
Clashes along the border left at least five Hezbollah militants dead, the group said. Ten of its members have been killed in recent fighting with the Israeli military, the group said.
Hezbollah also launched fresh strikes against Israeli targets.
An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon landed in the town of Metula in northern Israel and wounded three Israelis, according to The Associated Press. A separate missile barrage out of Lebanon targeted the Yiftah kibbutz in northern Israel. No Israelis were injured in that attack.
Military analysts have warned that a full Hezbollah entrance into the war would be a nightmare for Israel. The group has significantly more fighters and is better equipment than Hamas.
Still, Israel has said it will crush Hezbollah if necessary.
“Whoever approaches the border with Lebanon will be killed,” said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman.
Mr. Netanyahu offered a similar warning.
“Don’t test us in the north. Don’t make the mistake of the past. Today, the price you will pay will be far heavier,” he told Israeli lawmakers, referencing the fierce war the two sides fought in 2006 that ended in a stalemate.
Other officials across the Middle East have said they are working to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakkan Fidan met with Lebanese officials in Beirut on Tuesday and cautioned that the conflict “might lead to greater wars.”
“We are doing all we can so that the war does not spread to other countries,” he said.
• Guy Taylor, Mike Glenn and Mallory Wilson contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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