“The response in Gaza has gone too far,” Biden said. “I'm working very hard right now to deal with this hostage ceasefire. I've been working tirelessly on this deal…If we can ease the initial delay, we'll extend it and move forward with Gaza. Because I think it can increase the likelihood that combat will change.”
Mr. Biden has resisted speaking in detail about the suffering in the Gaza Strip, but he also spoke of the enclave's despair in the most visceral terms yet.
“I have been working hard to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. Many innocent people are starving. Many innocent people are in hardship and dying and this has to stop. ” Biden said.
This comment comes despite growing anger among the left wing of the Democratic base over the Gaza war and its massive civilian toll. , marks a remarkable turnaround for Mr. Biden, who has largely refused to criticize the country. Israeli airstrikes and raids over the past four months have killed more than 27,000 Palestinians and created a humanitarian catastrophe in the densely populated area, home to more than 2 million people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Israeli military action was in response to an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants, who breached Israel's border fence with Gaza and went on a rampage, many of them civilians. They killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 250 hostages. Biden has twice bypassed Congress to send hundreds of millions of dollars in arms to Israel, a move that has angered some Senate Democrats.
The president has resisted pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza, which polls show a majority of Democratic voters support. But his unwavering support for Israel came at a political cost, as young voters, people of color, and Arab and Muslim Americans strongly opposed his handling of the war. Still, Congress is considering a foreign aid bill that includes $14 billion in aid to Israel, passing a key threshold in the Senate on Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, a group of senior policy advisers traveled to Michigan, a state with a large Arab American and Muslim population, to meet with local residents and elected officials to drum up support. The state is critical to Biden's path to a second term, especially as many Arab American and Muslim voters are rallying to prevent local residents from supporting Biden in November. is facing serious problems.
Biden and his aides call for limiting civilian casualties, scaling back military operations in Gaza and increasing aid to the enclave, where hundreds of thousands of residents are at risk of starvation. He is furious with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly ignored U.S. calls. And sick.
In recent weeks, Netanyahu has publicly shamed Biden, despite mounting global condemnation, hundreds of millions of dollars in arms transfers and unwavering support. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become increasingly defiant about the prospect of a two-state solution (Biden has said it must come after the war ends), and this week he announced the release of some Israeli hostages in exchange for a long-term suspension. He refused an agreement to release him. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took part in the fighting while in the region.
Prime Minister Netanyahu also angered U.S. officials by vowing to continue Israeli military operations in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than 1 million Palestinians have fled for safety on Israeli orders. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary John Kirby said an Israeli operation in Rafah under the current circumstances “would be a disaster for those people and we will not support it.”
Biden also released a national security memorandum Thursday that requires the State Department to receive written assurances from countries receiving U.S. weapons that they will comply with existing U.S. standards. These include complying with international law and ensuring that recipients facilitate and do not “arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise obstruct” the transportation of U.S. humanitarian assistance.
The memorandum comes amid growing criticism from prominent Democratic lawmakers about Israel's military operations and whether it abides by international law despite receiving U.S. weapons and billions of dollars in aid. It was issued in response to.
Biden talked about his efforts to get aid to Gaza, detailing how he pressured Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. , Sisi initially refused, fearing that Israel would force the Palestinians to relocate. his country. But Biden mistakenly referred to Sisi as the “President of Mexico.”
Biden's remarks came at the end of a hastily arranged news conference in which the president addressed the findings of a special counsel report on the handling of classified documents released Thursday. Although the report cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing, it included language that questioned the memory and mental agility of Special Counsel Robert K. Hur.
