Live Update From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Abbas said to cancel meeting with Biden tomorrow after Gaza hospital blast
A senior Palestinian official says Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has canceled his participation in a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with US President Joe Biden and other Mideast leaders.
Abbas was scheduled to join Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi at a summit in Amman, Jordan, where they were set to discuss the latest Israel-Hamas war with Biden.
But the senior official says Abbas is withdrawing to protest an alleged Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza that Hamas health officials say has killed more than 500 people.
The IDF has so far not commented on the blast, saying it needs more time to investigate if it was indeed an IDF airstrike.