Israel said Gazans could flee to this neighbourhood – then it was hit
As smoke rose into the overcast skies of Deir al Balah in Central Gaza on 5 December, the whine of an aircraft could still be heard overhead.
The Musabeh family’s home had been destroyed.
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Footage of smoke plume from the blast at the Musabeh home in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, 5 December 2023
“The scene was horrific, fires burning in the house,” eyewitness Mohammed Abu Musabeh told Erem News, a UAE-based news organisation.
Among the survivors was an infant girl, Layan, a relative of Mr Abu Musabeh, who said she was blown onto a neighbour’s roof by the force of the explosion.
“How will this child continue her life after learning what happened to her family?”
Days earlier on 1 December, a temporary ceasefire had collapsed. In preparation for an invasion of southern Gaza, Israel published an interactive map which divided the territory into hundreds of small zones.
The map, Israel said, would be used to give clear and precise evacuation orders to try to keep civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip away from active combat zones.
Using on-the-ground footage, satellite imagery and mapping software, a Sky News visual investigation found that Israel’s evacuation orders have instead been chaotic and contradictory and that a neighbourhood in Deir al Balah was hit one day after the IDF said evacuees could flee there.
Our investigation comes after a separate strike in Gaza was caught on camera by a Sky News team. It too came in an area that was supposed to be safe.
‘No safe place in Gaza’
Responding to a request for comment on our findings, the Israeli army did not deny striking the Musabeh home.
A spokesperson for the IDF said: “The IDF will act against Hamas wherever it operates, with full commitment to international law, while distinguishing between terrorists and civilians, and taking all feasible precautions to minimise harm to civilians.”
In response to our investigation, the United Nations told Sky News that it is already investigating 52 similar incidents in areas where the Israeli army told civilians it was safe to evacuate to.
“This is exactly why we as the UN have been saying that there is no safe place in Gaza,” Ajith Sunghay, head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, told Sky News.
Chaotic orders
After the temporary ceasefire, Israel faced growing international pressure to limit civilian harm.
The IDF’s solution? The interactive map with each zone having a unique numeric ID.
An image of the interactive map was then posted on the Israeli army’s website. Pic: IDF
On 4 December, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists that the map would indicate “where civilians in a specific area should go to avoid being in the crossfire”.
Civilians were told to learn the number assigned to their neighbourhood and listen out for evacuation orders via social media.
Questions were immediately raised about how Gazans, who have suffered persistent internet outages, would access the online map, and how they could safely move between areas as instructed.
The UN has not officially recommended that Gazans relocate to areas suggested by the IDF, as the zones have not been agreed with all parties to the conflict.
“One of the fundamental requirements of a safe zone is that all parties agree to a particular place to be safe,” said Mr Sunghay.
On 1 December, the day hostilities resumed, the Israeli army began releasing evacuation orders.
The deleted static map was the first grid map published by the Israeli army. Pic: IDF
Musabeh home hit
The Musabeh family’s neighbourhood is located in section 128 on Israel’s interactive map. It was never included in any of the IDFs evacuation orders issued on social media.
On 4 December, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson said on X the IDF would allow “humanitarian movement of civilians” along the coastal road from Khan Younis to Deir al Balah.
The Musabeh home lay in the heart of Deir al Balah, less than 300 metres from Shuhada street – a road explicitly marked by the Israeli army as a route by which civilians could safely reach the city.
The day after that post, on 5 December, the Musabeh home was hit.
Pic: Planet Labs PBC
‘I don’t know what happened to my son’
A neighbour said that their son had gone to the Musabeh home to ask for water.
“Then the airstrike happened,” the neighbour told al-Araby. “The dust came at us and cars were thrown into the air. […] I don’t know what has happened to my son.”
The footage below, captured by Gaza-based journalist Yosef al-Saifi, shows the immediate aftermath: a woman and two children calling for help on top of the ruined home, a street covered in rubble, and a car on fire.
One man runs with a young girl in his arms, her body limp and her arms badly burnt. Another man pulls a motionless boy from beneath the rubble.
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The aftermath of the blast at the Musabeh home in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, 5 December 2023
The video below, also recorded by Mr al-Saifi, shows another casualty being carried, also seemingly unresponsive. A fourth casualty is placed on a blood-soaked stretcher, as firefighters tackle a blaze.
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A casualty is carried on a stretcher following a blast at the Musabeh home in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, 5 December 2023
Footage of the incident verified by Sky News, including some which is too graphic to publish, shows 11 casualties in total – nine of them apparently unresponsive, including three children.
The spokesman for al Aqsa hospital told Al Jazeera Mubasher that 45 people were killed in the blast. Sky News has been unable to independently verify the exact number of those killed.
Preliminary research carried out by Airwars, an organisation specialising in the verification of airstrike casualties, found online tributes to one of those killed in the attack, Mohammad Kamal Abu Musabeh and further posts about the injured infant Layan. Information online surrounding the identity of those killed has been scarce.
A neighbour of the Musabehs told al Araby that the home had been housing between 70 and 80 people, many of them displaced from elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Damage seen in satellite imagery
The neighbour attributed the bombing to an Israeli aircraft, as did a report by Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Eyewitnesses reported a single explosion, and footage verified by Sky News shows that the damage was extensive. The upper floor of the building had collapsed, and its walls were blown out onto the street below.
Visible damage to the Musabeh home can also be seen in satellite imagery taken on 3 December and 6 December.
No remnants of munitions were available for Sky News to conclusively determine whether the IDF was responsible for the attack.
Two experts told Sky News that, based on the footage available, the damage was consistent with an airstrike.
“It was a large [explosion] to have caused that much damage,” says Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
“It was not an errant rocket or artillery shell. It would be consistent with a large air-delivered munition.”
J Andres Gannon, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, agrees.
“Based on the footage provided, the damage seen is consistent with what we would see from a missile strike with a fairly high payload,” he says.
“There is not much burn damage aside from light metal like the vehicles, and much of the rubble is very large pieces of concrete which is different from the smaller fragments we would see from shrapnel damage caused by mortars or other light projectiles.
“Satellite footage shows damage limited to a particular quadrant of the building which suggests more accurate targeting than we would see from a bomb, so that is also consistent with the damage we would see from an air to surface missile.”
Mr Gannon says that the level of damage seen was “quite a bit higher” than could be achieved by the kind of rockets known to be used by Palestinian militant groups in Gaza.
“There is also very little shrapnel or fire damage from spent fuel that I can see, both of which would be present at the site of a smaller rocket or mortar attack,” he added.
Sky News has not seen reports of rockets being fired by any other groups in the area. The IDF later said it had, on that day, launched airstrikes “in the area of Deir al Balah”.
“During these strikes, terrorists from the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations were eliminated, and a number of terrorist infrastructure were destroyed,” the post on Telegram on 6 December said.
Sky News presented the findings of this investigation to the IDF. A spokesperson declined to say whether Israel was responsible for the blast at the Musabeh family home.
‘I can’t find any rationale’
Mr Sunghay, the senior UN official, told Sky News that even if only military targets had been struck, there would still be serious questions over the IDF’s decision to tell civilians they could move to Deir al Balah on the day of, and in the days following, the strikes.
“I can’t find any rationale, to be honest,” he said.
“At a minimum you wouldn’t again reiterate that it’s a safe place. If you call it a safe place and people have gone there and you’ve struck it once, at a minimum you would wait a little while. For me, it doesn’t make sense that they kept calling it a safe zone.”
‘Warnings are not enough’
Brian Finucane, an expert legal adviser with the non-profit International Crisis Group, says that there is a requirement on warring parties to provide effective advanced warnings to civilians, where feasible.
“This calls into question whether Israel is actually taking feasible precautions,” said Mr Finucane.
“If [Israel] issues warnings urging people to relocate to a certain area and then nonetheless conducts further strikes there, that’s not really an effective advanced warning.
“But even if this warning scheme worked as advertised… Warnings are not enough. Israel still has to distinguish between civilians and combatants.”
Palestinians charge their mobile phones from a point powered by solar panels in Khan Younis
Even receiving those warnings has been difficult. Intermittent internet and telecommunications outages have made it much harder for civilians across Gaza to find and share information about safe areas.
On 17 December, connectivity was gradually restored after a three-day blackout, the longest outage on record since the start of the present conflict, according to cybersecurity watchdog NetBlocks.
But not all Gazans have mobile devices, making access to the IDF instructions impossible for many. Many people are having to communicate and share information by word of mouth.
And even for those who do have access to phones, Israel’s official social media posts and evacuation orders have been confusing and contradictory.
Sky News analysis of the IDF’s 22 evacuation orders between 1 December and 19 December shows that only nine have included maps of the area to be evacuated. In all nine cases, these maps have directly contradicted the written orders provided.
In only six of the 22 orders did the IDF cite specific numbered zones. In all six cases, parts of the numbered zones were excluded from the static maps attached to the posts.
‘This chaos and confusion could have killed me’
The IDF’s interactive map was presented as a high-tech, humane solution to conducting urban warfare in one of the most densely populated parts of the planet.
Yet this map has never been updated to show areas being evacuated – Gazans have had to rely on static maps published via social media.
None of the evacuation orders have included any mapping of areas to which people can safely flee. Instead, these areas have simply been named.
In the four evacuation orders issued since 16 December, that too has stopped: Gazans have been told where to flee from, but not where they might flee to.
The only safe area which the IDF has mapped is a strip of coastline that Israel has called the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone. It has provided rough sketches of this zone, but has never marked it out clearly. The two maps it has produced are, when analysed in mapping software, contradictory.
Even when the orders are clear, as in the recent orders for civilians to leave the north and head towards Deir al Balah, it is often unclear how Gazans are supposed to safely make the journey.
Kamal Almashharawi, a lawyer from Gaza City who recently fled the territory, recently spoke to a friend in northern Gaza who told him it was too dangerous to even open the curtains due to fighting outside.
Mr Almashharawi was forced to flee the north himself after Israel first ordered its evacuation on 13 October.
“This chaos and confusion could have killed me,” says Mr Almashharawi, who is now in Saudi Arabia.
“I was in Khan Younis at first, and I thought that the ground invasion would start there so I had to go back to Gaza City. We hadn’t heard of any bombing there, we didn’t realise it’s because the internet was cut.”
Mr Almashharawi says that he subsequently arranged an evacuation from Gaza City for himself and around 30 family members.
“On the ‘safe passage’ I saw dead bodies on the ground. Those people read the instructions and followed the instructions, and now they’re dead.”
Mr Sunghay said the UN was planning to publish a report on incidents in areas where the IDF had told civilians to flee to, including Deir al Balah.
“If we are unable to prevent attacks and killings of civilians, what will come next is accountability and for that purpose this work is extremely important,” he said.
A spokesperson for the IDF said: “Since the beginning of the fighting, the IDF has been imploring the civilian population to temporarily evacuate from areas of intense fighting, to safer areas, in order to minimise the risk posed by remaining in areas of intense hostilities.
“The IDF carries out this effort in a variety of ways, including radio broadcasts, a dedicated website in Arabic, millions of pre-recorded phone calls and tens of thousands of live phone calls, and millions of leaflets.
“While the IDF makes these efforts to evacuate the population out of the line of fire, Hamas systematically attempts to prevent the evacuation of civilians by calling on the civilians to ignore the IDF’s requests. In doing so, Hamas endangers the civilian population of Gaza.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
World
‘He was the light of my life and I lost him’: How a famous surgeon died in an Israeli prison after being taken from Gaza hospital
As a famous orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh spent much of his career fixing broken limbs and broken bodies at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital.
One of the best-trained doctors in the enclave, a photo showing him covered in blood in Al-Shifa’s operating theatre went viral in 2018.
When war broke out last October, he worked around the clock. Pictures stored on his mobile phone show him standing in a hole, swinging a blunt-edged shovel as the hospital descended into crisis.
It had run out of fuel, food and basic pain relief and there was no more space to store dead bodies. Dressed in hospital scrubs, Dr Al-Bursh and his colleagues dug mass graves as the sound of explosions rang out behind the hospital’s walls.
Soon after the outbreak of the conflict, the surgeon, along with his wife Yasmin, realised that their world had changed forever.
“Adnan was needed every time there was a war,” she recalled. “So, I told him, ‘get ready, there will be lots of operations, they will need your help’. He went to hospital to receive the injured and stayed for 24 hours. He did not stop.”
Dr Adnan Al-Bursh’s wife and children
Dr Al-Bursh spent his days in the operating room and slept in the staff room at night.
He also kept a diary of sorts with his mobile phone, documenting the increasingly desperate scenes unfolding around him.
“Despite the pain, we are steadfast,” he said as he filmed the scene in a crowded operating theatre.
Dr Al-Bursh and others in the staff room
Israel said the foundations of Al-Shifa were laced with tunnels where Hamas operated a ‘command-and-control centre’, something Hamas denies.
As Israeli troops advanced towards the facility, Dr Al-Bursh captured the mood inside. Another video found on his mobile phone shows a colleague in the staffroom recalling a painful conversation with his wife.
“I remember that she only asked one thing of me, what do you think it was? That request was ‘just let me see you smile’.
“Smile. It’s the first thing I want to do after this war, if God saves us.”
Tens of thousands of people had to evacuate the hospital
By mid-November, Al-Shifa was under siege by Israeli troops.
A week later, patients, staff and some 50,000 displaced residents sheltering in the compound were ordered to evacuate.
Dr Al-Bursh captured the scene of long columns of people walking towards southern Gaza.
But the surgeon did not follow them. Instead, he went northeast to another facility – the Indonesian Hospital – still operating in northern Gaza. What he found on his arrival horrified him.
“I was shocked by the size of the catastrophe here,” he said in a video. “There are injured people who have been waiting for their operations for more than ten days. [Their] wounds were severely infected.”
On 20 November 2023, the Indonesian Hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks and later that evening, projectiles were fired into the second floor. At least 12 people were killed.
Dr Al-Bursh survived with minor scrapes but the front entrance of the facility was torn apart. “The destruction is everywhere,” he said in another video.
A spokesman for the IDF denied that Israeli forces were responsible.
By early December 2023, Dr Al-Bursh had moved to a small hospital, also in the north, called Al-Awda.
A series of pictures, posted on the hospital’s social media page, show him examining patients with fatigue etched on his face.
These are the last known images taken of the surgeon.
These are the last known images taken of the surgeon at Al-Awda hospital
The last images were released on hospital social media
The Israeli military surrounded the hospital on 5 December, and the staff were worried about what the soldiers would do.
Dr Al-Bursh worked at Al-Awda alongside a friend and colleague, Dr Mohammad Obeid.
Eventually, the hospital’s director told them that they would have to leave the building.
“[The director] told us that the [Israeli army] have full data of all males aged between 14 and 65 at Awda hospital,” Dr Obeid said, tearfully. “They told him that if all men do not come down… they will destroy the Awda Hospital with all the women and children in it.”
We put this allegation to the IDF but they did not respond.
The men filed out of the hospital and five, including Dr Al-Bursh, were taken away.
“A soldier came up to us and called out Dr Adnan’s name, who was sitting next to me… I felt he was in a very difficult situation. The occupation soldier took him and the treatment was very rough.”
Read more:
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Video of Israeli hostage released
The Israeli military base, Sde Teiman, where Dr Al-Bursh was taken. Pic: Breaking the Silence
In a brief statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed to Sky News that Dr Al-Bursh was detained by its personnel. On 19 December 2023, it says the surgeon was taken to an Israeli military base called Sde Teiman, which has been used for processing detainees since the early part of the war.
Allegations of physical, mental and sexual abuse are rife. A former camp inmate, Dr Khalid Hamouda, believes many of the prisoners at Sde Teiman were medical professionals.
“In the camp where I was, there were about 100 prisoners. I think at least a quarter of them were involved in healthcare. Some of them were doctors, nurses and technicians.”
Dr Hamouda was put to work by the guards at the base as their helper or ‘shawish’, and remembers being told to fetch Dr Al-Bursh at the gate. When he collected him, his fellow doctor said he had been badly beaten and felt pain all over his body.
“He thought he may have broken ribs,” Dr Hamouda said. “He was unable to even go to the toilet alone.”
Israeli soldiers stand outside Ofer military prison near Jerusalem. Pic: AP
The IDF told Sky News that after Dr Al-Bursh was processed, he left Sde Teiman on 20 December and became the “responsibility” of the Israeli Prison Service.
In April, the surgeon was taken to an incarceration facility near Jerusalem called Ofer Prison.
He died shortly after his arrival. News of the surgeon’s death was announced in a statement from two Palestinian prisoner support associations at the beginning of May. The Israelis offered no explanation or cause of death.
Sky News has spoken to people who claim to have witnessed the moments before Dr Al-Bursh’s death.
A prisoner, who says he previously knew Dr Al-Bursh in Gaza, provided details in a deposition to lawyers from the Israeli human rights organisation HaMoked.
“In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body.
“The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh (was dead).”
Dr Al-Bursh treating a young patient earlier in the war
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While some people might suggest that Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was a terrorist, Daqqa said: “If you want to formally answer this question, he was not charged until now. And many of these detainees are not charged from Gaza.”
In a statement to Sky News, a spokesman for the Israel Prison Service said: “IPS is a law enforcement organisation that operates according to the provisions of the law and under the supervision of the state comptroller and many other official critiques.
“All prisoners are detained according to the law. All basic rights required are fully applied by professionally trained prison guards.
“We are not aware of the claims you described and as far as we know, no such events have occurred under IPS responsibility. Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”
Dr Al-Bursh’s family paid tribute to him
Sky News was told by colleagues and Dr Al-Bursh’s wife Yasmin that he was in good physical condition before his arrest.
“He was the light of my life and I lost him,” Yasmin said.
Dr Al-Bursh was prepared to risk his life to save others. This story is one of a countless number, now buried under the immovable weight of Gaza’s recent past.
But Dr Al-Bursh lived and lost his life in a manner that demands acknowledgement, his friends and family members say.
World
Ukrainian frontline commander warns: ‘The world is scared of Russia and losing is not only our problem’
In the courtyard of a farmhouse now home to soldiers of the Ukrainian army’s 47th mechanised brigade, I’m introduced to a weary-looking unit by their commander Captain Oleksandr “Sasha” Shyrshyn.
We are about 10km from the border with Russia, and beyond it lies the Kursk region Ukraine invaded in the summer – and where this battalion is now fighting.
The 47th is a crack fighting assault unit.
They’ve been brought to this area from the fierce battles in the country’s eastern Donbas region to bolster Ukrainian forces already here.
War latest: Russia ready to carry out ‘massive attack’
The captain known by his men as ‘Genius’
In the summer, Ukraine launched an incursion into Russian territory, in Kursk
Captain Shyrshyn explains that among the many shortages the military has to deal with, the lack of infantry is becoming a critical problem.
Sasha is just 30 years old, but he is worldly-wise. He used to run an organisation helping children in the country’s east before donning his uniform and going to war.
He is famous in Ukraine and is regarded as one of the country’s top field commanders, who isn’t afraid to express his views on the war and how it’s being waged.
His nom de guerre is ‘Genius’, a nickname given to him by his men.
Captain Sasha Shyrshyn and Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay
‘Don’t worry, it’s not a minefield’
Sasha invited me to see one of the American Bradley fighting vehicles his unit uses.
We walk down a muddy lane before he says it’s best to go cross-country.
“We can go that way, don’t worry it’s not a minefield,” he jokes.
He leads us across a muddy field and into a forest where the vehicle is hidden from Russian surveillance drones that try to hunt both American vehicles and commanders.
Sasha shows me a picture of the house they had been staying in only days before – it was now completely destroyed after a missile strike.
Fortunately, neither he, nor any of his men, were there at the time.
“They target commanders,” he says with a smirk.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
‘The world is scared of Russia’
It takes me a moment or two to realise we are only a few steps away from the Bradley, dug in and well hidden beneath the trees.
The disguised American Bradley vehicle hidden in the forest
Sasha tells me the Bradley is the finest vehicle he has ever used.
A vehicle so good, he says, it’s keeping the Ukrainian army going in the face of Russia’s overwhelming numbers of soldiers.
He explains: “Almost all our work on the battlefield is cooperation infantry with the Bradley. So we use it for evacuations, for moving people from one place to another, as well as for fire-covering.
“This vehicle is very safe and has very good characteristics.”
The American Bradley fighting vehicle that Ukrainian soldiers have found vital in their efforts
Billions of dollars in military aid has been given to Ukraine by the United States, and this vehicle is one of the most valuable assets the US has provided.
Ukraine is running low on men to fight, and the weaponry it has is not enough, especially if it can’t fire long-range missiles into Russia itself – which it is currently not allowed to do.
If President-elect Donald Trump cuts the supply of military aid, the Ukrainians will lose – it’s that simple.
US President-elect Donald Trump has been clear he intends to change his nation’s policy on the war in Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
Sasha says: “We have a lack of weapons, we have a lack of artillery, we have a lack of infantry, and as the world doesn’t care about justice, and they don’t want to finish the war by our win, they are afraid of Russia.
“I’m sorry but they’re scared, they’re scared, and it’s not the right way.”
Like pretty much everyone in Ukraine, Sasha is waiting to see what the US election result will mean for his country.
He is sceptical about a deal with Russia.
“Our enemy only understands the language of power. And you cannot finish the war in 24 hours, or during the year without hard decisions, without a fight, so it’s impossible. It’s just talking without results,” he tells me.
Read more from Stuart Ramsay:
How Ukrainian units are downing Russia’s drones
Heartbreaking final moments of girl who tried to flee Gaza
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‘Losing will be not only our problem’
These men expect the fierce battles inside Kursk to intensify in the coming days.
Indeed, alongside the main supply route into Kursk, workers are already building new defensive positions – unfurling miles of razor wire and digging bunkers for the Ukrainian army if it finds itself in retreat.
Barbed wire rolled out in the Sumy region ahead of expected fighting
Tank traps in the Sumy region
Sasha and his men are realistic about support fatigue from the outside world but will keep fighting to the last if they have to.
“I understand this is only our problem, it’s only our issue, and we have to fight this battle, like we have to defend ourselves, it’s our responsibility,” Sasha said.
But he points out everyone should realise just how critical this moment in time is.
“If we look at it widely, we have to understand that us losing will be not only our problem, but it will be for all the world.”
Stuart Ramsay reports from northeastern Ukraine with camera operator Toby Nash, and producers Dominique Van Heerden, Azad Safarov, and Nick Davenport.
World
Joe Biden welcomes Donald Trump at White House for transition of power meeting president was never offered
US President Joe Biden greeted Donald Trump at the White House saying “welcome back”, as the two political rivals met for the first time since a fiery debate in June.
Mr Biden and Mr Trump were seen exchanging pleasantries as they sat side by side in front of a roaring fire in the Oval Office today, in a meeting aimed at ensuring the smooth transfer of power from one leader to another.
It is the first time the president-elect has visited the White House since he left the Oval Office after being defeated by Mr Biden in the 2020 election.
“Donald, congratulations,” Mr Biden said, greeting Mr Trump with a handshake and adding that he looked “forward to a smooth transition”.
“Welcome, welcome back,” the president said.
Trump-Biden latest: Follow US election fallout live
The president and president-elect shaking hands. Pic: Reuters
The president-elect thanked Mr Biden for the invitation and for a peaceful transition of power saying it will be “as smooth as it can get”.
Mr Trump added: “Politics is tough, and it’s many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and I appreciate very much a transition that’s so smooth it’ll be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that, Joe.”
The last time Mr Trump and Mr Biden met in person was for the presidential debate on 27 June, when the Democrat’s gaffes cost him his candidacy.
Mr Biden dropped out a few weeks later in July, endorsing vice president Kamala Harris to run in the presidential race instead.
First lady Jill Biden also made an appearance at the meeting, greeting the president-elect as he arrived at the White House and giving him a “handwritten letter of congratulations” for his wife, Melania Trump, a statement from her office said.
Mr Trump thanked the outgoing president for a smooth transition of power. Pic: Reuters
The letter also “expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition”.
The incoming first lady was invited to meet Dr Biden, but reportedly declined the invitation.
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The meeting follows the longstanding tradition of outgoing presidents meeting their successors to discuss a smooth transition from one administration to the other.
However, Republican Mr Trump failed to give the same opportunity to Mr Biden in 2020 as he refused to accept his defeat against his Democratic rival.
Today’s nearly two-hour meeting between Mr Biden and the president-elect saw them discuss foreign affairs, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and the safe release of Israeli hostages captured by Hamas during the militant group’s 7 October attack on southern Israel last year.
Mr Biden stressed the importance of supporting Ukraine as it fights off Russia’s full-scale invasion, the White House said, amid concerns that Mr Trump would follow through with threats to cut US aid to Kyiv.
The White House said Mr Biden’s team is open to working with Mr Trump’s on securing the release of Israeli hostages, which, along with a ceasefire in Gaza, has been the focus of negotiations between Israel and Hamas and their mediators.
It also said the Biden administration had secured extra commitments from Israel in the past couple of days over the situation in Gaza, where a 13-month war has caused the death of more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say.
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‘It’s always nice to win’
Mr Trump, who previously won the keys to the White House when running against Hillary Clinton in 2016, will be sworn in as president on 20 January following his decisive election win against Ms Harris last week.
Sky News’ US partner network NBC News has projected the Republicans have retained control of the House of Representatives.
It means all levers of power in Washington are now under Mr Trump and his party’s control, having also secured the Senate.
They will also be backed by a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority, including three justices appointed by the president-elect.
Earlier today, Mr Trump met with billionaire Elon Musk earlier today before he celebrated his victory with Republicans in the House of Representatives.
“Isn’t it nice to win? It’s nice to win. It’s always nice to win,” Mr Trump said. “The House did very well.”
Mr Trump received a standing ovation from House Republicans, many of whom took videos of him as he ran through their party’s victories up and down the ballot, in what would be his final presidential election.
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say ‘he’s good, we’ve got to figure something out’,” Mr Trump said to laughter.
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