President Joe Biden has said he thinks there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war after a campaign speech was interrupted by a protester calling for a ceasefire.
“I think we need a pause,” Mr Biden said.
The call on Wednesday was a subtle departure for Mr Biden and top White House aides, who throughout the Middle East conflict have said they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas.
But the president has faced intensifying pressure from human rights groups, fellow world leaders and even liberal members of his own Democratic Party, who say the Israeli bombardment of Gaza is collective punishment and that it is time for a ceasefire.
In his comments, Mr Biden was exerting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give Palestinians at least a brief reprieve from the military operation that has left thousands dead and mired the 141-square-mile strip in a roiling humanitarian crisis.
It comes as Israeli airstrikes hit apartment buildings in a Gaza refugee camp for the second day in a row, Palestinian officials said.
The territory’s only functioning border post was opened to allow foreign passport holders to leave for the first time since war broke out more than three weeks ago.
Al-Jazeera television, one of the few media outlets still reporting from northern Gaza, aired footage of devastation in the Jabaliya camp near Gaza City and of several wounded people, including children, being taken to a nearby hospital.
The Hamas-run government said the strikes killed and wounded many people but the exact toll is not known.
The White House has refused to call for a ceasefire but has signalled that the Israelis should consider humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to receive aid and for foreign nationals trapped on the strip to leave Gaza.
Israeli ground troops have advanced near Gaza City in heavy fighting with militants, the military said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, hundreds of foreign nationals and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza after more than three weeks under siege.
The first people to leave Gaza - other than four hostages released by Hamas and another rescued by Israeli forces - crossed into Egypt, escaping even as bombings drive hundreds of thousands from their homes, and food, water and fuel run low.
White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that Mr Biden’s newly confirmed ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, would soon be dispatched to the Middle East and would be tasked in part with “supporting US efforts to create the conditions for a humanitarian pause to address the worsening humanitarian conditions facing Palestinian civilians.”
Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Herzog told “The Hill” on NewsNation on Wednesday “we don’t need urging” in response to calls for more aid for Gaza.
“We are ramping up humanitarian supplies into Gaza in those areas which are away from Hamas in the southern part of Gaza. The number of truckloads doubles and is going to pick up more and more,” he said. “We provide water. We provide other types of supplies.”
He said to NewsNation they were happy to see foreigners leave Gaza. “So we don’t need urging, urging in that sense. Our Cabinet discussed this week this issue and decided there are no limitations as long as we can make sure that Hamas does not put its hands on humanitarian supplies and uses them to feed its war machine. That will not happen. Short of that, everything is open.”
On Wednesday evening, Mr Biden was speaking to a crowd of supporters in Minneapolis about his reasons for running for president in 2020 when a woman got up and yelled: “Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire.”
“This is incredibly complicated for the Israelis,” Mr Biden went on. “It’s incredibly complicated for the Muslim world as well.
“I supported a two-state solution, I have from the very beginning.”
“The fact of the matter is that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. A flat out terrorist organisation.”
The toll from Tuesday’s strikes on the Gaza refugee camp were unknown, though the director of a nearby hospital said hundreds were killed or wounded.
Israel said the strikes killed dozens of militants, including a senior Hamas commander involved in the militants’ bloody October 7 rampage and destroyed militant tunnels beneath the buildings.
In a sign of increasing alarm over the war among Arab countries, Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador from Israel and told Israel’s ambassador to remain out of the country.
Jordan, a key US ally, signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994, the second Arab country after Egypt to do so.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres “is appalled over the escalating violence in Gaza” including the killing of Palestinians by Israeli airstrikes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, his spokesman has said.
“He condemns in the strongest terms, any killings of civilians,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Wednesday.
Mr Dujarric said: “The secretary-general reiterates that all parties must abide by international law, international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution.”
The UN chief also reiterated his call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages taken from Israel by Hamas, Mr Dujarric said, and he called again “for the entry of vital humanitarian assistance at a scale needed to meet the mounting needs of the Palestinian population”.
