18th October, 2023
President Joe Biden says Israel is not alone as the the United States will stand with them in these dark days after Hamas bomb the country.
Biden, who spoke in Tel Aviv when he visited Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “Israel you’re not alone. We will walk beside you on those dark days”.
He said Israel would be a safe and secure Jewish and democratic state “today, tomorrow and forever. May God protect all those who work for peace, God save those who are still in harm’s way.”
On the Gazan hospital blast last night, Biden said he was outraged and saddened at the enormous loss of life and that the evidence pointed to “an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”
He said he had asked the Israeli cabinet to agree the delivery of “live-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza” based on the understanding it would go to civilians not Hamas and that Israel had agreed aid could begin to move from Egypt to Gaza.
Biden announced US$100m new US funding for humanitarian assistance to both Gaza and the West Bank, while promising there would be an imminent and “unprecedented” defence package for Israel, which he said he would ask Congress for later this week.
The US president said Israel, as a country was “born to be a safe place for the Jewish people of the world” and pledged that the US would do “everything in our power” to achieve that once more.