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As it happened: Biden arrives in Israel for Netanyahu talks; Gaza's biggest hospital on verge of running out of fuel; Hundreds reported dead in Gaza hospital explosion

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Thanks for joining 9News.com.au's live coverage of the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip for Wednesday, October 18, 2023. This is what made headlines today.

US President Joe Biden has arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to ease tensions in the region and address the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza.

A blame game is unfolding over the explosion at a Gazan hospital that has killed hundreds. Israel has denied responsibility, saying a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile was behind the blast, while Palestinian authorities have blamed the IDF.

Protests erupted across the world in response to the blast.

Gaza's largest hospital says it will run out of power unless it receives new fuel supplies today. The call for aid comes as the crucial Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt remains closed.

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That's all for today

That's where we'll leave today's live rolling coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

This is what made headlines today.

US President Joe Biden has arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to ease tensions in the region and address the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza.

A blame game is unfolding over the explosion at a Gazan hospital that has killed hundreds. Israel has denied responsibility, saying a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile was behind the blast, while Palestinian authorities have blamed the IDF.

Protests erupted across the world in response to the blast.

Gaza's largest hospital says it will run out of power unless it receives new fuel supplies today. The call for aid comes as the crucial Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt remains closed.

Tune into 9news.com.au and nine.com.au to keep up to date on the latest from Gaza, otherwise our live blog will return tomorrow morning.

Crucial Rafah crossing remains shut despite calls for aid deliveries

No humanitarian aid or people were passing through the Rafah border crossing as of this evening (Wednesday morning local time), an Egyptian official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity since he was not authorised to speak with the media.

During an earlier interview with CNN, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Rafah was not open due the damage inflicted by numerous Israeli airstrikes on the access roads linking the Egyptian and the Gaza sides of the crossing.

"The Rafah crossing over the last days has been bombed four times," Shoukry said.

"Among them, once when we were trying to repair some of the damage. Four Egyptian workers were injured."

Hamas' border authorities did not immediately respond to AP's request for comment.

Israeli military lays out what it claims is proof it wasn't behind hospital disaster

Away from Biden landing in Tel Aviv for a second, and an Israeli military spokesman has said at a recent press briefing that Israel has crosschecked intelligence that proved a failed Islamic jihad rocket launch caused a deadly explosion at a Gazan hospital.

Had it been an Israeli strike, "we would have seen craters and structural damage to the building, both of which haven't been identified", Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

Most of the damage was caused by propellant in the rocket and not by the warhead, he said.

Propellant remained because the launch failed and the rocket didn't travel as far as intended, he said.

According to Israeli intelligence reports, Islamic Jihad fired about 10 rockets from a nearby cemetery at 6.59pm local time on Tuesday, and there were reports of an explosion at the hospital at that time, Hagari said.

He alleged that Hamas understood it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired but "launched a global media campaign to hide what really happened".

Biden embraces Netanyahu on tarmac

Biden is now out of Air Force One and has met with Netanyahu on the tarmac.

Noise from the aircraft made it impossible to hear what the two said to one another, but the US president embraced with Netanyahu, who he's known for four decades, as well as Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Biden touches down in Israel

Joe Biden has just touched down in Israel.

The US President has arrived at Tel Aviv Airport ahead of his meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's war cabinet.

Gaza 'spiralling out of control', WHO says

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the situation on the ground is spiralling out of control as desperately needed supplies remain unable to make it into the enclave.

The situation in Gaza is spiralling out of control," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"Every second we wait to get medical aid in, we lose lives.

"For four days, WHO supplies have been stuck at the border.

"We need immediate access to start delivering life-saving supplies.

"We need violence on all sides to stop."

Gaza's biggest hospital to run out of fuel today

Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of victims of the al-Ahli Hospital blast were taken, will run out of fuel today unless more supplies enter the Gaza Strip, the hospital's general director says.

The hospital, Gaza's largest, is stretched far beyond its capacity following the al-Ahli explosion, Mohammed Abu Selmia said, adding that health workers were still treating severely wounded patients.

"They are all in a terrible situation," he told the Associated Press.

"A young woman whose limbs were amputated, a child whose intestines came out, many others have had limb amputations, bleeding in the brain, bleeding in the liver and spleen."

He also said that doctors were performing operations on the floor without anesthesia and that a shortage of essential medical supplies was an urgent issue.

If the hospital runs out of fuel, it could be forced into a total shutdown of services, he said, adding that doctors would "remain with the sick and wounded".

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