For an American president, turning up in a warzone is an extraordinary move.
Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East on Wednesday was always going to be a high-stakes gamble.
But he is now flying into an even more volatile situation, after the bombing of a hospital in Gaza that is thought to have killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Hamas has blamed an Israeli air strike, but Israel said the blast at Al Ahli hospital was caused by rockets fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Mr Biden had planned to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and Arab leaders in Jordan.
But just before Air Force One took off from Joint Base Andrews, the summit in Amman was suddenly cancelled.
President Biden will have wanted to look like an honest broker dealing with both sides in the Middle East.
He now faces the embarrassment of being told by the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority that they have no confidence in his ability to end the violence, which they say is in breach of international law.
There is no doubt whose side President Biden is on when it comes to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The president described the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October – which left more than 1,400 Israelis dead – as “sheer evil”, and said the country had a right and a duty to defend itself.
Source: BBC
