The U.S. reported that Egypt consented to reopening its border crossing with the Gaza Strip so that Palestinians could receive aid as the humanitarian crisis for the 2.3 million people encased in the enclave worsened.
U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby said the opening would happen in the coming days after repairs to the road were completed.
A day after a hospital bombing in Gaza City, U.S. President Joe Biden paid an eight-hour visit to Israel.
Gaza hospital blast
On Tuesday night, Palestinian officials reported that an explosion at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza killed 471 people. Anti-Israel protests erupted throughout the Middle East.
Israelis and Palestinians have placed blame for the hospital bombing on each other.
Israel and the U.S. blamed a failed rocket launch by Islamist militants in Gaza, who denied responsibility, as Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli air strike. Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, stated that the death toll from the explosion was only “a few dozen.”
Al Ahli Arab Hospital, founded in 1882 and run by the Anglican church, had 80 beds and offered free breast cancer screening, an elderly women’s center, and a mobile clinic for nearby towns. It is in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip.
Outrage over the hospital explosion sparked protests across the Middle East, including in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia.
The Middle East and the Muslim world were not the only regions where protests occurred. Hundreds of Jewish peace activists demanded an end to the fighting at a massive rally in Washington, D.C., aimed at the Biden administration and Congress.
