Biden to Visit Israel on Wednesday; IDF Airstrike in Gaza Kills Senior Hamas Commander | Updates

West leaders continued to throw their weight behind Israel as it continued to target Hamas terror camps in the Gaza Strip on the tenth day of war after the Palestine-based terror group burst through Israel’s heavily fortified Gaza border, shooting, mutilating and burning more than 1,400 people.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 500 people were killed in an explosion at a hospital that it says was caused by an Israeli airstrike.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz landed in Israel on Tuesday and said that Germany stands firmly by Israel’s side. Other leaders including France President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will also be heading to the war-hit country as the West rallies behind Israel.

But all eyes will be on US President Joe Biden who is expected to reach Israel on Wednesday after multiple talks with PM Benjamin Netanyahu over the telephone after the surprise attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7, the worst in Israel’s history. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who landed in Israel on October 12, is already here.

Biden’s visit, seen as potentially the riskiest of his presidency, is expected to see him reaffirm US backing for Israel and try to stop the escalating war against Hamas from spiralling into wider conflict.

Thousands of people have been killed since the October 7 attack, with most of the dead on both sides civilians.

Latest Updates on Israel-Hamas War:

• US President Joe Biden will Israel on Wednesday.
• The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 500 people were killed in an explosion at a hospital that it says was caused by an Israeli airstrike.
• French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that he will visit Israel following the deadly attacks by the Hamas group on October 7.
• Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Israel is concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It said there will be no ceasefire for now and the Rafah crossing into Gaza from Egypt will remain closed.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Tuesday for broad international support in the country’s war against Gaza-based militants Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack in Israel’s 75-year history. “The world must stand united behind Israel to defeat Hamas,” Netanyahu said alongside visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
• United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. They both recognised the devastating consequences of wider conflict in the Middle East.
• The Pentagon has put 2,000 troops on deployment alert to be able “to respond quickly to the evolving security environment in the Middle East”.
• Israel Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel or anyone else. He said, “We will not agree that the Hamas will have any power in Gaza or in any other place. No human can comprehend the barbarity of torturing babies murdering women, and even taking out the baby before they are born…”
• Four fighters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement were killed in south Lebanonon, bringing the number of the Iran-backed group’s members killed in intensifying border skirmishes with Israel to nine.
• Around 3,000 people were killed in the Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said on Tuesday.
• The Al-Qassam Brigades announced that Ayman Nofal Abu Ahmed, the commander of the Central Brigade of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that if the “atrocities” against Gaza persisted then Muslims and resistance forces could lose patience and nobody would be able to prevent their actions, as per CNN.

(with inputs from agencies)