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Israel has been badly victimised, but it should explore the opportunity to relieve the suffering of people in Gaza who have nowhere to go, US President Joe Biden said following his trip to Israel.

“Look, Israel has been badly victimised. But the truth is that if they have an opportunity to relieve the suffering of people who have nowhere to go, it’s what they should do. And if they don’t, they’ll be held accountable in ways that may be unfair,” Biden told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way back from Israel on Wednesday.

“And my point to everyone is, look, if you have an opportunity to alleviate the pain, you should do it, period. And if you don’t, you’re going to lose credibility worldwide. And I think everyone understands that,” Biden said after he spent several hours in Israel in the aftermath of the terrorist strike from Hamas.

The US has asked for massive humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza and is in the process of providing defence military assistance to Israel.

Biden said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi agreed to open up the Rafah gate to allow up to 20 trucks of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. “If Hamas confiscates them or doesn’t let it get through … then it’s going to end,” he said. “The bottom line is Sisi deserves a lot of credit,” he added.

The White House, in a readout of the phone call between the two leaders, said Biden and El-Sisi discussed ongoing coordination to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza and mechanisms to ensure the aid is distributed for the benefit of the civilian population.

“The two leaders agreed to work together closely on encouraging an urgent and robust international response to the UN’s humanitarian appeal. They agreed on the need to preserve stability in the Middle East, prevent escalation of the conflict, and set the circumstances for a durable, permanent peace in the region,” the White House said. (PTI)

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Israel had agreed to allow humanitarian assistance to begin flowing into Gaza from Egypt, with the understanding that shipments would be subject to inspections and that aid should go to civilians and not Hamas militants.

“I understand. Many Americans understand,” Biden said, likening the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“You can’t look at what has happened here ... and not scream out for justice. While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it.”

Israel had cut off the flow of food, fuel and water to the Gaza Strip after the attack by Hamas, in which nearly 1,400 people in Israel were killed. Mediators have been struggling to break a deadlock over providing supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals. An explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital compounded the suffering.

Israel confirmed that food, water and medicine would begin to flow to Gaza through Egypt, though exactly when that would begin wasn’t immediately clear. (AP)

Coalition forces were slightly injured in Iraq in a spate of drone attacks over the past 24 hours at US bases in Iraq as regional tensions flare following the deadly bombing of a hospital in Gaza.

Two drones targeted a base in western Iraq used by US forces and one drone targeted a base in northern Iraq. US forces intercepted all three, destroying two but only damaging the third, which led to minor injuries among coalition forces at the western base, according to a statement Wednesday by US Central Command.

“In this moment of heightened alert, we are vigilantly monitoring the situation in Iraq and the region. US forces will defend US and coalition forces against any threat,” Central Command said in the release.

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have threatened to attack US facilities there because of American support for Israel.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, issued a statement afterward claiming responsibility for the two attacks and saying it “heralds more operations” against the “American occupation.” The salvos came at a time of increasing tension and fears of a broader regional conflict in the wake of the latest Hamas-Israel war. (AP)

The United States assessed that Israel was not responsible for the attack on a Gaza hospital a day earlier, the White House said on Wednesday.

“The US government assesses that Israel was not responsible for an explosion that killed hundreds of civilians yesterday at the Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip,” White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

“Our assessment is based on available reporting, including intelligence, missile activity, overhead imagery, and open-source video and images of the incident,” she said.

Citing intelligence reports, Watson said some Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip believed that the explosion was likely caused by an errant rocket or missile launch carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

“As the President said earlier today, the explosion appears to be the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza — and we are continuing to work to corroborate whether it was a failed PIJ rocket,” she said. (PTI)