Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that President Joe Biden will visit Israel on Wednesday amid Israel’s war with Hamas that has world leaders on high alert for escalation with Iran.
“The president will reaffirm the United States solidarity with Israel and our ironclad commitment to its security,” Blinken told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
ISRAEL WAR: NEARLY 200 PEOPLE HELD HOSTAGE BY TERRORIST GROUPS IN GAZA
“President Biden will underscore our crystal-clear message to any active state or nonstate trying to take advantage of this crisis to attack Israel. To that end, he’s deployed two aircraft carrier groups and other military assets to the region,” he added.
Blinken offered that forecast at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning local time, an odd hour suggestive of the urgency and uncertainty that characterizes diplomatic discussions in the wake of the unprecedented Hamas terrorist attack that has ignited a major conflict in Gaza. That crisis is complicated by the fact that Hamas took about 200 people hostage, and Iran and its proxy forces have threatened to intervene if Israel proceeds with its stated intention to eradicate the terrorist group.
“President Biden will receive a comprehensive brief on Israel’s war aims and strategy,” Blinken said. “The president will hear from Israel — how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas.”
The president will also travel to Amman, where he will be hosted by the king of Jordan and meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“He will reiterate that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination and discuss the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a Monday evening statement.
Those travel plans have come together as Iran threatens to launch “preemptive action,” perhaps through Hezbollah, its terrorist proxy entrenched on Israel’s border with Lebanon, to constrain Israel’s plan to target Hamas.
“The possibility of preemptive action by the resistance axis is expected in the coming hours,” Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Monday.
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The question of humanitarian aid has developed into a multi-national diplomatic dispute as Israel’s bombardment in Gaza raises the specter of a Palestinian refugee exodus that Egypt, the only other country that shares a land border with the Gaza Strip, does not want. Israeli officials also stopped providing electricity and other supplies to Gaza, although they announced Sunday that the energy ministry would “restart water to the south of the Gaza Strip” to encourage Palestinian civilians to evacuate the northern area they plan to attack.
“Today, and at our request, the United States and Israel have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza, and them alone, including the possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way,” Blinken said.
