'Hamas committed atrocities that make ISIS look more rational,' says Biden in Israel

US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday that "Hamas committed atrocities that make ISIS look more rational".

Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday, beginning a visit to show solidarity and confer on the spiralling Gaza war.

Descending from the plane amid a large security contingent, Biden embraced Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog on the tarmac.

"Welcome, Mr. President. God bless you for protecting the nation of Israel," Herzog's office quoted him as telling Biden.

Biden said that Washington would provide Israel with everything it needed to defend itself as it wages war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Biden said Hamas was worse than Islamic State for its killings of Israeli civilians in a surprise attack on Oct. 7 which sparked the latest Israel-Palestinian violence.

He said he was "sad and outraged" by an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday which Hamas said killed hundreds of people, but added that it seemed the "other team" was responsible, in reference to Palestinian militants.

Biden said 31 Americans were among the more than 1,300 Israelis killed in Hamas's Oct. 7 attack.