Joe Biden was on Tuesday preparing to embark on a high stakes visit to Israel and Jordan to reaffirm America’s full backing for action targeting terror group Hamas while seeking to avert a devastating humanitarian crisis in Gaza and avoid an explosive wider regional conflict.
The US president’s visit to the Middle East on Wednesday was announced just over a week after more than 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered by Hamas fanatics in Islamic State-style rampages, with babies and children among those killed, at least 3,000 more injured, and nearly 200 individuals seized as hostages.
The White House stressed his trip would demonstrate “steadfast support for Israel in the face of Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack” which saw more Jewish people murdered than at any time since the Holocaust and the end of the Second World War.
Mr Biden will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and would also “discuss the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza,” where more than 2,800 people have been killed in Israeli air attacks since the October 7 Hamas mass killings, around a quarter of them children, and some 10,000 wounded, according to health officials.
Water and food were reported to be running scarce in many parts of the besieged Gaza strip, with around a million people reported to have fled their homes, many following Israel’s warning to move south ahead of its planned ground forces’ invasion.
America’s top diplomat Antony Blinken stressed on Tuesday that Israel, and the US, had agreed to “develop a plan” that will enable humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza, including the “possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way”.
After visiting Israel, the president was due to travel to Jordan to meet King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas amid concerns over the full-blown Gaza crisis spreading to the West Bank and also threatening a wider Middle East war.
The Pentagon has deployed the Gerald R. Ford and Dwight Eisenhower aircraft carriers, and supporting ships, to the eastern Mediterranean in a show of power to deter Iran or other countries from seeking to stoke up the conflict.
Britain has also sent two ships with three helicopters and a company of Royal Marines, surveillance aircraft, with Typhoon jets based in Cyprus on standby for action.
But Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has warned that “pre-emptive action is possible” if Israel moves closer to its looming ground offensive into Gaza.
Tehran has spoken of “far reaching consequences” if the conflict escalates, amid concerns that Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon could intensify attacks on Israel from the north.
US Army General Michael Kurilla, who oversees American forces in the Middle East, made an unannounced trip to Israel today to hold high-level meetings with its wartime Cabinet.
“I’m here to ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself, particularly focused on avoiding other parties expanding the conflict,” he said.
The Pentagon is rushing weaponry, including air defences and munitions, to Israel.
Mr Biden’s trip was announced after US Secretary of State Mr Blinken concluded hours of talks with Mr Netanyahu in Tel Aviv early today.
The president would receive a comprehensive brief on Israel’s war aims and strategy.
“(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,” Mr Blinken added.
Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell said President Biden’s visit “gives a significant fillip” that humanitarian rules will be respected and fleeing refugees will be able to reach a “safe zone” along the coast in southern Gaza.
He stressed Britain stood “full square behind” Israel but added that it had a “moral and practical responsibility” to allow aid into Gaza.
At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to go into the besieged enclave which is 25 miles long, and six miles wide, where 2.3 million people live.
The United Nations’ Palestinian Refugee Agency warned this morning that fuel reserves at hospitals across Gaza were expected to last for just 24 hours.
It also stressed “the vast majority of Gaza, does not have running water”.
The UN Human Rights Office said Israel’s siege of Gaza and its evacuation order there could amount to the international crime of the forcible transfer of civilians.
Former CIA director general David Petraeus, who led US and international forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, warned of the devastation and death toll from trying to annihilate Hamas and its network of underground tunnels, which would “inevitably” see basic services, infrastructure and homes destroyed in Gaza which would need to be rebuilt.
“The enormity of the challenges here just can’t be overstated,” he said.
