Joe Biden has signed an order shielding several thousand Palestinians in the United States who need protection from deportation for the next 18 months, the White House said on Wednesday, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
The move grants “deferred enforced departure” to an estimated 6,000 Palestinians, a Biden administration official said.
In a statement, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that following “the horrific October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, and Israel’s ensuing military response, humanitarian conditions in Gaza have significantly deteriorated”.
Sullivan said the US president’s decision would give Palestinians in the US “a temporary safe haven”. Anyone who voluntarily returns to the Palestinian territories would lose their protections, he added.
After more than four months of war, Biden is facing pressure to do more to protect Palestinians in Gaza and get aid into the besieged enclave that is under heavy bombardment from the Israeli military.
He has also faced criticism from Arab Americans, Muslims and members of the public in many communities for not calling for a permanent ceasefire in the conflict, while continuing to support Israel with funds and arms.
Abed Ayoub, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said in a statement there “is a desperate need” for measures protecting Palestinians in the US.
“We see the situation in Gaza and Palestine is not getting better, and this is something that is welcome, and we are glad to see it implemented,” Ayoub said.
Gaza health officials say at least 28,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October, when Hamas militants broke out of Gaza into southern Israel and killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
In Egypt on Wednesday, negotiations involving multiple countries and high-level delegations on a ceasefire deal for Gaza entered a second day, as mediators struggle to make progress in the face of a threatened Israeli offensive on Rafah, the Palestinian territory’s last place of relative safety, in the south on the border with Egypt.
Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with a military offensive in the city, where at least a million Palestinians have fled other parts of Gaza as the Israeli ground invasion and bombardments worked from north to south. But the assault on Rafah to continue his goal to “destroy Hamas” would begin only after civilians are allowed to leave the “battle zones”, the prime minster said.
Netanyahu did not make clear where the trapped civilians would be permitted to go, and what safeguards, if any, would be put in place to protect them – a stance that has angered international leaders this week.
The UN coordinator for relief operations, Martin Griffiths, warned that an offensive “could lead to a slaughter in Gaza”, and in a phone call with Netanyahu, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the Gaza death toll was “intolerable” and insisted the Israeli offensive “must cease”.
Reuters contributed reporting
