"Please do everything possible to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe," he said at the end of his audience at the Vatican. The pope did not mention Tuesday night's strike on a Gaza hospital, for which Israel and the Palestinians blame each other. On Sunday, the pope appealed for the "urgent" opening of humanitarian corridors for residents of the Gaza Strip, which has been bombed and besieged by Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday a day after an explosion that killed hundreds of people.