FACT CHECK: Video Of President Biden Arriving In Israel Predates Current Conflict
A post shared on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, allegedly shows President Joe Biden arriving in Israel for a summit with Jordanian, Egyptian and Palestinian leaders.
⚡️🇺🇸Biden arrived in 🇮🇱Israel
The US president will also visit Jordan, where he plans to meet with Jordanian King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. pic.twitter.com/N60A1lfLWx
— 🇺🇦Ukrainian Front (@front_ukrainian) October 17, 2023
Verdict: False
The video is from 2022, predating the current Hamas-Israel conflict. Biden arrived as part of a two-day trip to strengthen relations in the Middle East at the time.
Fact Check:
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announced the cancellation of a summit that was expected to take place Oct. 18 between Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdeal Fattah El-Sisi, Palestinian Authority President Mahmound Abbas and Biden, according to CBS News. The decision to cancel the summit, which was described as “mutual,” follows a large explosion that occurred at a hospital in Gaza earlier Tuesday, which reportedly killed as many as 500 refugees, the outlet reported.
The post on X claims to show Biden arriving in Israel for the summit earlier on Tuesday morning. The president is seen standing next to several personnel on the tarmac after leaving Air Force One.
The video predates the current Hamas-Israel conflict by over a year. The events seen in the video occurred in July 2022, when Biden traveled to Israel as part of a two-day trip.
Biden had traveled to the region, his first visit as president, to partake in a summit that sought to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel and encourage the region to export more oil, according to Reuters. The two-day trip was marked with a meeting of the “I2U2 group” and a joint declaration of a strategic partnership between Israel and the U.S., the U.S. Embassy in Israel stated.
The president left Joint Base Andrews Tuesday night for a trip to Israel, though the summit in Amman had been canceled by that point, according to The Washington Post. Protests over an explosion at a Gaza hospital erupted throughout the region, including the Israeli Embassy in Jordan, the outlet reported.
Misinformation regarding Biden’s visit to Israel, in addition to the recent explosion at the hospital in Gaza, have circulated widely online. Check Your Fact has debunked several videos claiming to show the moment an erratic missile hit the hospital.