Marking his second trip to an active war zone not under U.S. military control this year, President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv on Wednesday pledged the U.S. will “walk beside” Israel amid its war with Hamas, declaring that freedom, not terrorism, “will win.”
“I'm here to tell you: the terrorists will not win. Freedom will win,” Biden said.
The president in Wednesday’s remarks also announced the U.S. will provide $100 million for humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, continuing to balance supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while also making it clear that “innocent families in Gaza” need to be helped and protected.
The balancing act became more difficult in the immediate aftermath of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City that left hundreds of civilians dead just a day before Biden’s Middle East Israel trip. Israel and Hamas traded blame for the attack, with Israeli officials saying it was the result of a misfire by other Palestinian militants.
The president on Wednesday appeared to confirm the U.S. reached the same conclusion as Israel, saying during his remarks: “Based on the information that we've seen today, it appears it was an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”
“The point is, is that I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion of the hospital in Gaza yesterday, and based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you, but there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we’ve got a lot—we’ve got to overcome a lot of things,” Biden said earlier at the top of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Asked later by reporters how he made that assessment, Biden said “The data I was shown by my defense department,” referring to the U.S. Pentagon.
A National Security Council spokesperson later echoed Biden's comments: "While we continue to collect information, our current assessment, based on analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information, is that Israel is not responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday."
The president started his trip to Israel by meeting with Netanyhu before sitting down with Israel’s full war cabinet. Biden then met with first responders and Israelis who lost loved ones in the war.
“Your visit is the first here by an American president during a time of war,” Netanyahu told Biden. The president visited Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion in February.
But the president’s trip faced last-minute changes as his planned meeting with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, which manages the West Bank, was canceled following the Gaza hospital explosion.
Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Biden has consistently emphasized the “vast majority” of Palestinian people are not represented by Hamas and urged Israel to follow the “rule of law” in its military response – both points he reiterated on Wednesday.
“You're also a democracy. Like the United States, you don't live by the rules of terrorists. You live by the rule of law,” Biden told Israelis. “What sets us apart from the terrorists – because we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life.”
The president said Israeli and Palestinian officials must continue pursuing a path that allows both to “live safely in security and dignity and in peace.”
“For me, that means a two-state solution,” Biden said.
The U.S. has been working relentlessly, according to officials, to get humanitarian aid into Gaza as civilians’ access to food, water and medicine worsens. Biden on Wednesday said he asked, and Israel agreed, to allow such aid to move from Egypt to Gaza.
Biden also said he will ask Congress to approve an “unprecedented support package for Israel's defense,” later this week. Questions and reports have swirled around whether Biden will attempt to combine funding for Israel with other aid, such as assistance for Ukraine, which has become a contentious topic with some Republicans.
“Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. I promise you, we're gonna do everything in our power to make sure that it will be,” Biden said.
“We're gonna stand with you," Biden concluded. "We’ll walk beside you in those dark days. We will walk beside you on those good days to come. And they will come."