Biden reinforces support during Israel visit as hospital explosion further inflames rage

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• Amna Nawaz:

  President Biden spent part of this day in Israel, again expressing unwavering support for Israel in the aftermath of Hamas terror attacks 11 days ago. But his journey was shorter than planned, as regional rage after yesterday's blast at a Gaza hospital led the leaders of Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt to cancel a summit on aid for Palestinians.

• Geoff Bennett:

  The president, like his hosts today, also said U.S. evidence shows the blast was caused by an errant rocket launched by militants.

  The fallout continues tonight, as protests against Israel continue throughout the Middle East and beyond.

  Once again, Leila Molana-Allen starts our coverage.

• And a warning:

  Some images in this story are disturbing.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  In this tent of the dead, the lives left behind are engulfed by grief. Palestinians hold their loved ones one last time.

  Outside, a grief-stricken father clutches his lifeless baby in the aftermath of the deadly explosion last night at Gaza's Al Ahli Hospital.

• Man (through interpreter):

  Bombs and rockets don't know whether they are young or old, nor do they care about hospitals, children or innocent people.

• Man (through interpreter):

  I saw a mother and her kids that we had helped. That mother and her kids are now dead.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  In Israel today, President Biden denounced the hospital blast and laid the blame on Gaza militants.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: I was outraged and saddened by the enormous loss of life yesterday in the hospital in Gaza. Based on the information we've seen to date, it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Mr. Biden said this was a U.S. assessment of culpability based on a variety of intelligence, including intercepted communications.

  IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi says there is clear evidence Israel did not strike the hospital.

  Herzi Halevi, Chief of Staff, Israeli Defense Forces: The IDF has confirmed and proven that it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that hit a hospital in Gaza yesterday.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  But Israel and Biden's claims did little to dampen the fury ripping through the region.

  Yesterday, Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian leaders called off a summit with President Biden, blaming Israel for the blast.

• Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority President (through interpreter):

  What happened is a huge tragedy and an ugly massacre that cannot be allowed to pass without accountability.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Pro-Palestinian protests have spread across the region. Police and protesters clashed near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan. And riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters near the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

  The State Department has issued its strongest travel warning for U.S. citizens in Lebanon. The president emphasized unwavering American support for Israel with a promise of new military aid. He also urged Israel and Egypt to allow the passage of humanitarian assistance from Egypt to Gaza.

  On Air Force One this evening, the president said Egypt had agreed to open its crossing with Gaza to aid shipments, all as Gaza continues to be pounded by Israeli airstrikes. Today, in an attack targeting Hamas militant Suleiman Hamush (ph) near a refugee camp, residential buildings were reduced to rubble.

  People dug through the debris with their bare hands. In the ruins, there were children.

• Man (through interpreter):

  These are our neighbors, our beloved ones, our friends and our children. Today, it's them. Tomorrow, it's us. What are we supposed to do? They're all children. What is the children's fault? Kids don't bomb.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  "NewsHour" Shams Odeh was at the scene.

• Shams Odeh:

  If you see behind me, this is the area that's been attacked by a big weapon, people trying, trying to get them out, still people under the ground.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Across the border in the West Bank, the reaction was fierce.

  Last night, the city of Ramallah swarmed with protesters as news of the hospital attack began to spread. This morning, the Palestinian Authority police were out in force as residents skirted around tear gas canisters left discarded after the clashes.

  The Palestinian Authority governs this area under President Mahmoud Abbas. But many protesting last night blamed his ineffective leadership for the turmoil Palestinians now face.

• Mohammad Kanaan, West Bank Resident (through interpreter):

  They were very angry about what happened in Gaza yesterday, and they wanted to shoot him.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  But some residents had others to blame.

  Ayad Areir left his home in Gaza last year to escape Hamas rule. It was just destroyed in an Israeli airstrike. His family felt safer here, until, last night, protesters attacked his car with his kids inside as they drove home. Ayad believes Hamas and their Iranian backers are destroying Palestinians' chance for peaceful lives.

• Ayad Areir, West Bank Resident (through interpreter):

  Whoever came here yesterday, they're not sons of Ramallah. In Gaza, they destroy our houses. Here they destroy our businesses and cars. These are instructions from Iran.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Soon after midday prayers, tensions were high again. Crowds young and old gathered at an Israeli roadblock at the edge of the city, an Israel Defense Forces outpost perched overhead.

  Thousands of people took to the streets of Ramallah last night to protest the strike on the hospital in Gaza City. And now they have turned out again, with young people throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces; 17-year-old Omar was injured in last night's confrontation with Israeli security forces when shrapnel from a flash bomb, a disorienting crowd control device, pierced his eye.

  But he's back today, saying it's his responsibility as a Palestinian to resist Israel's occupation.

• Omar Qais, West Bank Protester (through interpreter):

  We're here because of Gaza. What's happening there is not rational. Nobody stands with them in Gaza. So this is the least we can do to come to the checkpoints and clash areas.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  After several warning shots, the mood suddenly turns as a young protester is shot in the leg. Medics, ready and waiting, rush him to hospital.

  Moments later, the others are back in action. Despite mounting evidence that Israel was not responsible for the hospital strike, many here are convinced there's no other explanation.

• Tahrir, West Bank Protester (through interpreter):

  I don't know what to say about what happened in Gaza. What I saw on TV was chilling. It was indescribable. I'm speechless.

  What did those people do to be attacked in a hospital? Was it their fault that they were children just wanting to be alive?

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  She's come down to join the young protesters and vent her rage.

• Tahrir (through interpreter):

  We support our people in Gaza. We have nothing but stones and these, so we use them.

• Leila Molana-Allen:

  Evening rolls in and crowds gather in the center of town as young men move to march on the checkpoint.

  "We will die for our land," they cry. As night falls, violence floods the streets again. And as the conflict here intensifies, internal divisions over whether peace or violence will achieve the dream of a Palestinian state are deeper than ever.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Ramallah, the West Bank.

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