President Biden appears to accuse Palestinian groups for Gaza hospital explosion as he meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

US President Joe Biden has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a desperate bid to prevent the war with Hamas from spiralling into a wider conflict after a devastating blast on a Gaza hospital killed 500 people.

A huge blast ripped through the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City last night while it was being used to treat and shelter thousands of civilians who were trying to avoid Israel’s relentless airstrikes. 

During their meeting, Biden said that Washington would provide Israel with everything it needed to defend itself as it wages war against Hamas, the militant group which he appeared to blame for a devastating blast at a Gaza hospital.

Biden, who landed in Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early on Wednesday, said he was “sad and outraged” by an explosion at al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday which Hamas said killed hundreds of people.

“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said while seated with Netanyahu. “But there’s a lot of people out there not sure, so we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.”

Hamas said in a statement in response to Biden’s remarks on Wednesday that the U.S. was “blindly biased to Israel.”

Israel says the hospital blast was caused by a rocket that fell short launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, who denied responsibility. 

The bloodshed at al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital resulted in the cancellation of a planned summit in Jordan between Biden, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. 

The U.S. State Department issued a new warning to Americans not to travel to Lebanon, which has seen border clashes between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel over the past week.

The health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said hundreds were killed and rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble. Earlier, a Gaza civil defence chief gave a death toll of 300, while health ministry sources put it at 500.