LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden added a new title on Wednesday: great-grandfather.
His granddaughter, Naomi Biden Neal, gave birth to her first child, a boy, with husband Peter Neal at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The baby's name is William Brannon Neal IV, according to an Instagram post from Jill Biden, the first lady, of her and the president with their new great-grandson.
Biden, who was in Los Angeles and saw the baby at the hospital, announced the birth at the end of an official briefing on wildfires in Southern California.
“The good news is I’m a great-grandfather as of today," Biden said.
Biden and his wife spent about 40 minutes visiting Naomi and the baby, the White House said. Biden had told USA Today in an interview published Wednesday that she was having a caesarian section that day.
The president and first lady arrived in Los Angeles late Monday after visiting New Orleans to mourn with the community after the deadly New Year's Day vehicle attack in the French Quarter. The president had an event scheduled Tuesday in California, but his announcement of new national monuments was postponed because of the wildfires.
Naomi Biden, 31, is the eldest daughter of Hunter Biden and his former wife, Kathleen Buhle. Hunter Biden, now a grandfather, has four other children, including a 4-year-old son, Beau, who is now an uncle.
With the new addition, Joe Biden, 82, is believed to be the first sitting president to become a great-grandfather while in office.
Naomi Biden and Peter Neal, 27, were married in November 2022 during an elaborate White House ceremony that was the first involving a president's granddaughter and the first held on the South Lawn.
She announced her pregnancy on Election Day, Nov. 5, with an Instagram selfie of her baby bump captioned, “We Voted.”
Superville reported from Washington. Former AP News Researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - President Joe Biden's granddaughter Naomi Biden, attends the lighting of National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse of the White House in Washington, Nov. 30, 2022. Naomi Biden Neal gave birth to a baby boy named William Brannon Neal IV with her husband, Peter Neal, on Wednesday in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, wave as they walk to board Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, en route to Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza's Health Ministry said Thursday, with no end in sight to the 15-month conflict.
The ministry said a total of 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded. It has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities, but does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in residential areas. Israel has also repeatedly struck what it claims are militants hiding in shelters and hospitals, often killing women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza. Israeli authorities believe at least a third of them were killed in the initial attack or have died in captivity.
The war has flattened large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its 2.3 million people, with many forced to flee multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into sprawling tent camps along the coast with limited access to food and other essentials.
In recent weeks, Israel and Hamas have appeared to inch closer to an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. But the indirect talks mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled over the past year, and major obstacles remain.
“What we are living is not a life. Nobody could bear the situation we’re experiencing for a single day,” Munawar al-Bik, a displaced woman, told The Associated Press in an interview this week.
“We wake up at night to the sounds of men crying, because of the bad situation,” she said. “The situation is unbearable. We have no energy left: we want it to end today.”
Al-Bik spoke on a dusty road in the southern city of Khan Younis next to a destroyed building. Behind her, a sea of makeshift tents filled with displaced families stretched into the distance.
On Thursday, dozens of people took part in funeral prayers outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for people killed in Israeli strikes the day before.
In the hospital morgue, a man could be seen kneeling and bidding farewell to a relative before slamming a refrigerator door in an outburst of grief.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed at least nine people in Gaza on Wednesday, including three infants — among them a 1-week-old — and two women.
Khaled reported from Cairo.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from Sderot, southern Israel, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
