President Biden is considering visiting Israel in the coming days — despite the looming threat of a full-scale ground invasion by the Middle Eastern country into Gaza.
The commander-in-chief has not made any official travel plans to Israel as it enters its second week at war with Hamas, a senior administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity told the Associated Press Sunday.
Biden has staunchly voiced support for the US ally since the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people including at least 30 Americans.
However, he has also made efforts to rein in Israel from further heightening tensions by reoccupying Gaza.
“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said during an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday.
“Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas, and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.”
Biden speaks at a dinner hosted by the Human Rights Campaign at the Washington Convention Center in Washington on Oct. 14, 2023. REUTERSThe president and his administration have refused to criticize Israel or its relentless bombing campaign that has killed hundreds of civilians, including women and children, in Gaza.
The Israeli government on Friday gave one million people living in the northern area of the Gaza Strip 24 hours to evacuate before an expected assault on the country.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
At least 70 Palestinians were killed and another 200 injured when they were hit by an airstrike while trying to follow the orders — an attack Israel denies carrying out.
An aerial view shows members of the media during a visit to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in the aftermath of a deadly attack by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel on Oct. 15, 2023. REUTERSAt least 2,400 Palestinians have been killed in the war so far.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already been traveling around the Mideast this past week trying to prevent the war with Hamas from igniting a broader regional conflict.
Blinken emphasized that Israel has the right to defend itself from the attacks by Hamas, but needs to be mindful of the cost of civilian life when carrying out its counteroffensive missions.
A view of destruction after the deadly attack on a police station in the city of Sderot on the second day of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. ZUMAPRESS.com“I’m confident that Israel is going to act under the rules of war,” Biden said on 60 Minutes.
”There’s standards that democratic institutions and countries go by,” he said. “And I’m confident that there’s going to be an ability for the innocents in Gaza to be able to have access to medicine and food and water.”
The White House also appointed David Satterfield, a former ambassador to Lebanon and Turkey, to lead US efforts to get humanitarian assistance to “vulnerable people through the Middle East.” Satterfield was expected to arrive in Israel on Monday.
With Post Wires
