About two dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in east Jerusalem Friday morning ahead of US President Joe Biden's visit to a local hospital.
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The protesters were holding banners reading "Palestinian Lives Matter," Palestinian flags, and posters of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist who was killed in May while covering a gun battle between IDF soldiers and Palestinian terrorists in the city of Jenin.
After two days of nonstop meetings with Israeli leaders, the US president visited Augusta Victoria Hospital in east Jerusalem and convened a joint meeting with the directors of the six Palestinian hospitals in the city. After the meeting, he headed to Bethlehem to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The 86-year-old PA leader, who has come under pressure to cancel the meeting, will likely ask Biden to press Israel to "stop the escalations and unilateral steps, including construction in the settlements, and settler violence against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria."
Biden announced that the US will transfer some $100 million to support Palestinian humanitarian and health services, which could contribute significantly to reducing the hospitals' deficits, along with a separate $201 million funding package provided through the UN relief agency UNRWA to help Palestinian refugees.
"Today I'm pleased to announce the United States is committing an additional $100 million to support these hospitals, your staffs that work for the Palestinian people," he said.
The funding is subject to approval by the US Congress and would pay out over several years.
Biden called the six hospitals "the backbone of the Palestinian health care system."
Dr. Fadi Atrash, the hospital's CEO, called Biden's visit a "courageous statement of support for the Palestinian people."
Augusta Victoria Hospital, which is operated by the Lutheran World Federation, ended 2021 in severe debt, with more than $70 million owed by the PA, according to a letter sent to US lawmakers in May.
The US president also announced measures to upgrade telecoms networks in Judea and Samaria and Gaza to high speed 4G standards by the end of 2023 and other measures to ease travel between Judea and Samaria and neighboring Jordan.
The demonstration was several hundred yards from the hospital, with Israeli police standing at a distance outside the building.
While Biden has voiced support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, there are no plans for any diplomatic initiative to resolve the decades-old conflict.
The American president will head back to Ben Gurion Airport for a 3:30 p.m. flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, though he may make a brief stop on the way at Bethlehem's Church of Nativity, if time permits.
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