President Biden landed in Israel on Wednesday morning, in a dramatic show of support for the U.S. ally amid its war with Hamas and growing concerns that the conflict could draw in other adversaries while the death tolls in Israel and Gaza continue to climb. Biden, who embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon landing, will join a meeting of the government’s war cabinet in Tel Aviv. He is also scheduled to visit with families of victims of Hamas’s cross-border attack and of those it is holding hostage, White House officials said. The president also has “hard questions” for Israel about its plans, a White House spokesman said. The president arrived as Gaza City was reeling from a deadly explosion at al-Ahli Hospital, which Palestinian authorities said killed hundreds of people Tuesday night and blamed on an Israeli airstrike. The Israel Defense Forces presented materials on Wednesday that it said showed the blast was the result of a failed Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket launch. Neither claim could be immediately verified by The Washington Post.
