Jordan cancels Biden meetings with King Abdullah, Sissi, Abbas in Amman tomorrow
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Joe Biden’s summit in Amman scheduled to take place tomorrow with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Sissi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been cancelled, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announces.
Earlier this evening, a senior Palestinian official said Abbas had canceled his participation in the meeting.
Abbas was scheduled to join King Abdullah II and Sissi at the summit where they were set to discuss the latest Israel-Hamas war with Biden.
But the senior official said Abbas was withdrawing to protest an explosion at a hospital in Gaza blamed on Israel that Hamas health officials say killed hundreds of people. Hamas initially said 500 but the Health Ministry in Gaza, run by the terror group, later said the death toll was between 200 and 300, as reported by AFP.
Israel said the explosion was caused by a rocket misfire by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.