US: No intention to deploy American ground forces to fight in Israel

The US does not intend to put its forces on the ground to support Israeli troops targeting Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, the White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said.

“There’s no intention to put US troops on the ground,” Kirby said, noting that US President Joe Biden wants to “get a sense from the Israelis about the situation on the ground, and more critically, their objectives, their plans, their intentions in the days and weeks ahead.”

Kirby told reporters on Air Force One that Biden will ask Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli leaders “tough questions” during his visit.

He added that the US president is “outraged; he’s saddened,” over the hospital bombing in Gaza, noting that he has “directed the national security team to — to gather as much information and context as possible so that we can learn more about how this happened.”

Regarding the cancellation of the Amman summit, Kirby said that the decision not to go to Jordan “was made in a mutual way”, and pointed out that the main reason for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s withdrawal from the summit was “he wanted to return home for three days of mourning,” said Kirby.

Kirby indicated that Biden intends to speak with the Palestinian and Egyptian presidents on his way back to Washington after visiting Israel.

He continued saying that the United States is close to establishing a framework for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza from Egypt.

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the cancellation of the quadrilateral summit that was scheduled for today in Amman, with the participation of US President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in addition to King Abdullah II of Jordan, after the Israeli bombing that targeted the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi said in press statementsL “After consulting with our Palestinian brothers and our brothers in Egypt and after talking with the United States, we decided not to hold this summit because if it is held, we want it to produce one solution that has no other, which is to stop the war, respect the humanity of the Palestinians, and deliver the aid they deserve.”

He stressed that the international community must put an end to the bloodshed, the continuation of which is disgrace to humanity.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the number of victims of the Israeli bombing that targeted the courtyard of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza had risen to 500 martyrs, most of whom were women and children.

READ: UK Labour leader: Strike on Gaza hospital cannot be justified