Joe Biden's Israel Visit Just Got a Lot More Dangerous

President Joe Biden's visit to Israel on Wednesday may have become more dangerous following an explosion at a Christian hospital in the Gaza Strip that killed an estimated 500 people.

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, has called for "a day of unprecedented anger" on Wednesday, which will coincide with Biden's trip to Israel to show his support for the country.

The president arrived into Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on Air Force One early on Wednesday morning, according to a White House pool report.

On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. Before the hospital blast on Tuesday, at least 1,400 Israelis and at least 2,778 Palestinians had been killed, according to figures from The Associated Press. Nearly 200 people were taken hostage in the October 7 attack.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health, led by Hamas, has estimated at least 500 people were killed in what it said was an airstrike on the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital on Tuesday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the blast was the result of a failed rocket strike by Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction fighting alongside Hamas.

However, the governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Türkiye were among those to condemn what was said to be an Israeli airstrike following the event.

Some international non-government organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, also attributed the explosion to an Israeli airstrike.

Speaking in Israel on Wednesday, Biden said: "The point is, is that I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you, but there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we've got a lot—we've got to overcome a lot of things."

Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, has called for a day of "anger" on Wednesday following the hospital blast, while the group has recently clashed with Israel in the north of the country.

It remains to be seen what form that "anger" could take, but the call comes amid concerns that Hamas or Hezbollah could fire rockets into Israel during President Biden's visit.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email for comment.

On Monday, air raid sirens interrupted a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and forced them to shelter in a security bunker.

White House officials acknowledged the difficult security situation in a press briefing on Tuesday and suggested that the president would not be making the visit if the U.S. could not guarantee his safety.

"We're traveling to a region in which there is active conflict, as you all know, and very real security concerns, so we may not be able to read out every expected piece of our trip to the region, but we'll do our best to answer all of your questions," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a press gaggle en route to Tel Aviv.

Speaking at the same briefing, John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, discussed the president's safety during the trip.

"We always take the president's security very, very seriously," Kirby said, adding that there is "a highly professional team in the Secret Service and in the State Department that takes a look at all those parameters."

"We wouldn't be making this trip if we didn't believe that we could do this in a safe and efficient manner for the president," Kirby said.

Toward the end of the press gaggle, Jean-Pierre was asked about potential rockets fired by Hamas on Wednesday. She did not respond directly to the possibility but discussed the importance of Biden's visit to Israel.

"Look, you know, of course these types of trips have risks, right? And so, we understand that, but there's also—the president understands how important it is to have these diplomatic conversations to get things done," she said.

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