Doctors in Gaza City faced with dwindling medical supplies performed surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of a massive blast that killed civilians sheltering in a nearby hospital amid Israeli bombings and a blockade of the territory.

At least 500 people were killed, the Health Ministry said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday said his country rejects what he calls efforts to force Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, warning that such an effort would jeopardize his country’s peace with Israel.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Cairo with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, al-Sisi said Wednesday that his government views Israel’s siege on Gaza, including cutting off water, food and fuel and preventing humanitarian aid from flowing into the territory as a scheme to expel the Palestinians to Egypt.

Jordan canceled a planned summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II because it "would not be able to stop the war now," Jordan’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs said.

Ayman Al-Safadi said in a statement on Wednesday that “Jordan will continue to work with everyone so that when this summit is held, it will be able to achieve what is required of it, which is to stop the war, deliver humanitarian support to the people of Gaza, and put an end to this crisis.”

U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israelis during his visit there Wednesday, and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital apparently was not carried out by the Israeli military.

"Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you," Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But Biden said there were "a lot of people out there" who weren't sure what caused the blast.

Security forces fired Wednesday tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters who rallied outside the U.S. embassy in the Beirut suburb of Awkar to condemn an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital.

Protestors hurled stones, many of them wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves and raising the Palestinian flag. Local media outlets reported cases of suffocation, amid heavy tear gas fire that made it difficult for medics to help the suffocating protesters.

The State Department has raised the travel advisory for Lebanon, urging people not to travel to the country “due to the unpredictable security situation related to rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah or other armed militant factions.”

The advisory issued on Tuesday also urged people to reconsider travel to Lebanon “due to terrorism, civil unrest, armed conflict, crime, kidnapping” and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut’s limited capacity to provide support to U.S. citizens. The State Department authorized the voluntary, temporary departure of family members of U.S. government personnel and some non-emergency personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut due to the unpredictable security situation in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said wednesday its fighters have hit an Israeli Merkava tank with an anti-tank missile, inflicting casualties among the troops.

The group said the attack early Wednesday targeted an Israeli army position across the border from the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab. The Israeli army said it is checking reports that an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon.

A strike on a Gaza hospital compound which health officials there said killed at least 500 people has provoked outrage and condemnation from around the world, with protests on the streets of Amman, Tunis, Beirut and Tehran.

Hamas called Tuesday’s hospital blast “a horrific massacre,” saying it was caused by an Israeli strike.

The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.

Photos from al-Ahli Hospital showed fire engulfing the hospital halls, shattered glass and body parts scattered across the area. The ministry said at least 500 people had been killed.

Israel's military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has threatened aggressive retaliation if Lebanon's Hezbollah escalates tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

“This is a war on the home,” Halvey said after meeting with Israeli troops near the northern border. “If Hezbollah makes a mistake, it will be annihilated.”