President Joe Biden’s efforts to tamp down tensions in the escalating war between Israel and Hamas faced massive setbacks even before he departed for the Middle East on October 17, as Jordan called off the President's planned summit with Arab leaders after a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital killed hundreds.
The postponement of the Amman summit comes after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas withdrew from the scheduled meetings in protest of the attacks, which the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza blamed on an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said it had no involvement and pinned the blame on a misfired Palestinian rocket.
“This war and this aggression are pushing the region to the brink,” Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s Foreign Minister, told al-Mamlaka TV, a state-run network. He said Jordan would only host the summit when all participants agreed on its purpose, which would be to “stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians, and deliver the aid they deserve.”
Biden leaves for Israel, scraps Jordan visit
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden, on October 18, left the White House for a quick trip to Israel to show solidarity with the people of the country in the aftermath of the terrorist attack by Hamas.
“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,” Mr. Biden said in a statement minutes before he boarded Air Force One for Israel.
“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,” Mr. Biden said.
In a statement, the White House said after consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt.
“The President [Biden] 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,” said a White House official.
Following reports of the huge toll due to the Gaza hospital blast, Mr. Biden was briefed by his national security team, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer.
“The President spoke by phone with Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who is still in the region. The President also spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan and with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The President continues to receive regular updates,” said the official.
Follow Israel-Hamas war, day 11 LIVE updates here
Volatile situation
The cancellation of the Jordan leg of the trip reflects an increasingly volatile situation that will test the limits of American influence in the region as Mr. Biden visits Israel.
The high-stakes presidential trip is emblematic of Biden’s belief that the United States should not turn back from its central role on the global stage and his faith that personal diplomacy can play a decisive role.
“This is how Joe Biden believes politics works and history is made,” said Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while Mr. Biden was a member.
There's been no water, fuel or food delivered to Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and triggered the unfolding war. Mediators have been struggling to break a deadlock over providing supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals.
As the humanitarian crisis grows, so too does the concern of a spiraling conflict that stretches beyond the borders of Gaza. There have already been skirmishes on Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group that’s based in Southern Lebanon.
“There’s a lot that can go wrong on this trip,” Mr. Alterman said.
Aid agreement
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, bouncing back and forth between Arab and Israeli leadership ahead of Mr. Biden's visit, spent seven-and-a-half hours meeting on Monday in Tel Aviv in an effort to broker some kind of aid agreement and emerged with a green light to create a plan on how aid can enter Gaza and be distributed to civilians.
It was on the surface a modest accomplishment, but U.S. officials stressed that it represented a significant change in Israel’s position going in — that Gaza would remain cut off from fuel, electricity, water and other essential supplies.
Mr. Biden has a long track record of showing public support for Israel while expressing concerns privately to the Israelis about their behavior.
“He believes the only way to get inside the Israelis’ heads is to demonstrate profound empathy, but also to be there,” Mr. Alterman said.
The Israel-Palestinian conflict has been ongoing for decades, and to a large extent, it's involved the same cadre of men. Mr. Netanyahu is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history. Mr. Abbas has been Palestinian President for nearly 20 years. Abdullah II has been king since 1999 — Mr. Biden has called the Jordanian king a loyal ally in a “tough neighborhood." El-Sissi is the newest leader, president since 2014.
It's important for these leaders, too, to avoid a prolonged and engulfing regional escalation, particularly as Egypt and Jordan face growing economic tumult.
In September, the International Monetary Fund issued a report saying that Egypt and Jordan are among the countries in the region that “stand at the brink of a debt crisis.” Egypt in particular is struggling with high inflation.
Neither nation wants to absorb refugees. Jordan already has a large Palestinian population, and the country is coping with hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along the Israel-Gaza border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion — but plans remain uncertain. U.S. officials have refused to say whether the Israelis were holding off in order for Mr. Biden to visit.
“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. “We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.”
Meanwhile, the death toll is mounting even without the war's next stage. Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,700 people and wounded more than 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.
Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead. More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza’s population — and 60% are now in the approximately 8-mile-long (14-kilometer-long) area south of the evacuation zone, according to the United Nations.
