By the staff of The Morning |
Good morning. We're covering Biden's arrival in Israel after a deadly explosion at a Gazan hospital — as well as Jim Jordan, China and "The Exorcist." |
 | | President Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel today.Kenny Holston/The New York Times |
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President Biden landed in Israel this morning as the world waited for evidence of whether a Hamas-linked group or Israel caused a devastating explosion yesterday at a hospital in Gaza City. |
The explosion, evidently from a missile, killed hundreds of people and injured hundreds more. (This video, verified by Times journalists, shows the moment the blast destroyed the hospital.) |
Both Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed the other side for the carnage. Gazan health authorities said it was an Israeli airstrike. Israeli officials said it was a failed rocket attack by Islamic Jihad, an armed group aligned with Hamas. |
After Biden landed, he seemed to endorse Israel's denial of responsibility. "Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you," he said. "But there's a lot of people out there not sure." |
The explosion added even more uncertainty to an already unusual trip by a U.S. president to a war zone. In response to the explosion, Arab leaders canceled meetings with Biden as protests spread across the region. In Jordan, a crowd lit fires outside the Israeli Embassy. In Lebanon, large demonstrations shook Beirut. |
In the rest of this newsletter, we will walk through Biden's visit as well as what we know — and don't know — about the explosion. |
 | | The bodies of those killed in the explosion. Abed Khaled/Associated Press |
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- The explosion occurred last night at Ahli Arab Hospital. The death toll is expected to rise.
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- Rescuers found a charred, gruesome scene in the rubble. "The shreds of the bodies have overlapped," said a doctor treating the wounded.
- The hospital has a history of operating during conflict. Over this past weekend, rocket fire injured four staff members. Read more about the hospital.
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 | | At the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza.Abed Khaled/Associated Press |
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- The question of responsibility is likely to dominate the news today. It is the subject of intense dispute and regional unrest. Around the world, supporters of both sides are blaming the other for hundreds of civilian deaths.
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- The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah called for a "day of rage" today to protest the blast, and Jordan declared three days of mourning for the victims.
- Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said "the barbaric terrorists in Gaza are the ones who attacked the hospital in Gaza," not Israel.
- The unrest has raised fears of a wider war. Iran's foreign minister warned of an escalation in response to civilian deaths in Gaza.
- The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for this morning.
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- Arab allies, including the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, canceled meetings with Biden.
- He will now meet only with Netanyahu, whom he hugged after landing in Israel this morning.
- Biden will likely try to de-escalate the conflict and secure humanitarian aid for Gaza.
- A White House spokesman said that Biden had directed his national security team to "gather as much context as possible" about the hospital blast.
- Many Arabs are critical of the U.S. for its support of Israel. "The Americans have zero moral standing in this region," one Middle East expert said.
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 | | The House of Representatives yesterday. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times |
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 | | In Kirkland, Wash.Ruth Fremson/The New York Times |
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 | | Alice TravisMaansi Srivastava/The New York Times |
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Oprah before Oprah: Alice Travis became the first Black woman to host her own national talk show in 1977, with Toni Morrison among her guests. |
Reopening: Rains and flooding devastated Vermont this summer. A tourism campaign called "Very Much Open" seeks to reassure visitors. |
Lives Lived: Roland Griffiths helped pioneer a new era of research on psychedelics, which he saw as a way to alleviate suffering and even reach a mystical state. He died at 77. |
Soccer: Gio Reyna, who recently returned to the U.S. men's national team after an injury, scored two goals in the Americans' 4-0 win against Ghana. |
 | | A still from "The Exorcist."Warner Bros-Getty |
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An anniversary: "The Exorcist," the classic horror film about a girl possessed by a demon, turns 50 this year. Times culture writers explored the movie's legacy — and how it touches on faith, queerness and womanhood. |
"It's fitting that the biggest, most contested film to open in 1973 is about a life-or-death struggle over a female body," writes the Times film critic Manohla Dargis, "a fight that was also at the center of the Supreme Court's biggest, most contested decision that year: Roe v. Wade." |
 | | Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. |
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Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. |
 | Editor: David Leonhardt News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Lauren Jackson, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch |
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