US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli and Palestinian leaders amid a push for a humanitarian corridor to help Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire of the Gaza war as the IDF prepares for a military ground campaign against Hamas.
Biden discussed with Netanyahu his US efforts “to ensure innocent civilians have access to water, food, and medical care” and “affirmed his support for all efforts to protect civilians,” the White House said in describing the fifth call between the two men since October 7.
The US and the UN
The Hamas assault against southern Israel that Saturday, in which the terror group killed over 1,300 civilians and soldiers, has been widely condemned.
Attention is rapidly turning, however, to the fate of Palestinian civilians who have no ability to escape the IDF’s military campaign to destroy Hamas. Egypt has yet to agree to open its border and Hamas has declared that they must remain in the Strip.
Their situation is made more dire by Israel’s decision to cut electricity, water, fuel and food shipments to the Strip which is home to 2.2 million people It’s estimated that some one million Palestinians, some half of the Gaza population have fled their homes to escape Israel’s aerial bombardment with the IDF asking that they he’d to southern Gaza to escape further air strikes.
The World Health Organization has explained that there are 22 hospitals in northern Gaza treating more than 2,000 patients. Given that the hospitals in southern Gaza are already at over-capacity, an evacuation to the south “could be tantamount to a death sentence.”
The US is working with the United Nations, Israel, Jordan and Egypt to set up a humanitarian corridor to allow supplies into Gaza and to provide Palestinians with safe passage into neighboring Egypt through the Rafah crossing.
Egypt is loathe to accept them and Palestinians fear that once they leave Gaza, they will not be able to return.
Biden told reporters in the United States, “We can’t lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas or Hamas’ appalling attacks.”
At a Human Rights Campaign National Dinner in Washington, Biden said that these “innocent Palestinians are being used as human shields.”
In his phone call with Abbas, the first since October 7th, Biden “condemned Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel and reiterated that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination,” the White House said.
Abbas briefed Biden “on his engagement in the region and his efforts to bring urgently needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza,” the White House said. “President Biden offered President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority his full support for these important and ongoing efforts,” it added.
Abbas told Biden that Israel must stop attacking the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid to reach the enclave as he “categorically rejected the eviction of Palestinians from” that area, according to the Palestine News Agency WAFA.