Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas Cancels Meeting with Biden on War in Israel

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has canceled his meeting with Joe Biden in Jordan, shortly after the hospital explosion in Gaza that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) concluded was the result of a misfire by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Biden left for Israel on Tuesday aboard Air Force One, and after meeting with Israeli leaders is scheduled to fly to Jordan where King Abdullah II will host the U.S. president, as well as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, and Abbas. Now Abbas will be a no-show.

Abbas — who is also called Abu Mazen — has been the head of the official government of the Palestinian people since 2005. But the reality on the ground is that Hamas operates as it wishes in Gaza, from which the terrorist organization launched the recent attacks that have resulted in over 1,200 deaths in Israel, as well as over 4,399 wounded, with another 200 currently held hostage by the terrorists.

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The 87-year-old Abbas canceled the meeting in Jordan shortly after an explosion at a hospital in Gaza took hundreds of lives. Hamas blames the IDF for the explosion. Israel in the meantime immediately made clear that IDF never deliberately targets hospitals, and is currently investigating the source of the explosion, including the possibility that the explosion came from a misfired rocket from Hamas or Islamic Jihad, which could have detonated explosives stored nearby.

Egypt borders Israel to the southwest, sharing a border with the Gaza territory, and Jordan borders Israel on the east.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel. The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters.

Ken Klukowski is a Breitbart News senior legal contributor.