Biden will ask Israel 'tough questions' during visit, says White House

WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden will ask Israeli leaders "some tough questions” during his talks in Israel, the White House said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters before departing for Tel Aviv, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden will meet with President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet.

Kirby said Biden wants to "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, and he'll be asking some tough questions".

"He'll be asking them as a friend, as a true friend of Israel, but he will be asking some questions of them," he added.

“By tough questions, I don’t mean menacing or in any way adversarial. Just hard questions that a good friend of Israel would ask about where they think they are going, what their plans are going forward.”

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the president is traveling to a region in which there is an active conflict.

"The president also believes it's an important moment to travel to the region to discuss humanitarian needs in Gaza and other crucial issues at hand," said Jean-Pierre.

The trip will be confined to Tel Aviv after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut short his visit to Jordan and decided to return to Ramallah Tuesday night, on the eve of a planned summit with Biden, following an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

The leaders of the US, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt were scheduled to take part in the summit in Amman on Wednesday.

Kirby said Biden intends to speak with both President Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the flight home.

More than 500 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital late Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Anadolu.

Footage on social media showed bodies scattered across the hospital grounds.

The airstrike came on the 11th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, with a growing international chorus of non-governmental groups and world leaders saying the Israeli bombing campaign on the besieged enclave -- including healthcare facilities, homes and houses of worship -- violates international law and may constitute war crimes.