U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday to address the escalating situation in Gaza. His visit became more challenging as outrage spread across the Middle East following an explosion that killed hundreds in a Gaza Strip hospital on Tuesday.

Upon arriving at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Mr Biden embraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog.

Mr Herzog’s office quoted the Israeli president as saying, “Welcome, Mr President. God bless you for protecting the nation of Israel.”

There was a significant security presence at the Tel Aviv hotel, where Messrs Biden and Netanyahu held talks, with snipers on nearby rooftops.

During a news conference with Mr Netanyahu, the U.S. president expressed his sorrow and outrage over the hospital explosion, saying, “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you. But there’s a lot of people out there not sure, so we’ve got a lot, we’ve got to overcome a lot of things.”

He added, “The world is looking. Israel has a value set like the United States does, and other democracies, and they are looking to see what we are going to do.”

Mr Biden had initially planned to visit Jordan, but his meetings with Arab leaders were cancelled as he left Washington on Tuesday evening, depriving him of the opportunity for face-to-face discussions he considered crucial for navigating this tense moment.

Israel had been preparing for a potential ground invasion of Gaza in response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, the armed group that rules the Palestinian enclave. The violence in Israel resulted in the deaths of at least 1,400 people, primarily Israelis.

Around 3,300 Palestinians were reported killed in Israel’s retaliatory air raids on Gaza.

According to health authorities, about 1,200 people were believed to be buried under the rubble, whether alive or deceased. These numbers do not include the casualties from the hospital explosion on Tuesday, the cause of which remains unclear.

Gaza’s Health Ministry attributed the hospital’s destruction to an Israeli air raid. Still, the Israeli military denied involvement and blamed a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another armed group, although they also denied responsibility.

Protests erupted throughout the region following the hospital deaths, leading to the cancellation of Mr Biden’s plans to visit Jordan, where King Abdullah II had intended to host meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Mr Abbas withdrew in protest, resulting in the summit’s cancellation.