President Joe Biden delivered a strong message of support for Israel on Thursday, confirming a mutual unconditional ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants while vowing full U.S. support to replenish the Jewish state’s Iron Dome missile rocket-intercepting system.
Speaking from the White House Cross Hall, Biden delivered his first extended remarks on the conflict, 11 days into the fighting that erupted when Hamas fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on May 10 following what the Palestinian side took as several aggressive acts by Israeli officials, including the eviction of Palestinian families in an East Jerusalem neighborhood. Biden said he had commended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call earlier, his sixth with the Israeli leader, who confirmed Israel’s support for a ceasefire. But he credited President Abdel Fattah al Sisi of Egypt, with whom he spoke for the first time since taking office on Thursday, with helping to secure the agreement. He also said he spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “more than once.”
