US president strongly rebukes Hamas and offers unqualified backing for Israel’s ‘duty to respond’ to attacks.
United States President Joe Biden has pledged unwavering support for Israel as its military pummels Gaza with bombardment, in the wake of an unprecedented attack from the Palestinian group Hamas over the weekend.
In a White House speech on Tuesday, Biden said that Washington will provide additional military assistance to Israel, which has since declared war on Hamas.
He also underscored the brutality of Saturday’s attack — which killed hundreds of people and saw others taken captive — and compared Hamas to ISIL (ISIS), accusing it of “terrorism”.
“This is what they mean by human tragedy, an atrocity on an appalling scale,” Biden said. “We’re going to continue to stand united, supporting the people of Israel who are suffering unspeakable losses and opposing the hatred and violence of terrorism.”
The US president, however, did not provide details about the Israeli war in Gaza or its aims — only backing what he called Israel’s “duty to respond to these vicious attacks”.
Here, Al Jazeera looks at five key takeaways from Biden’s address:
Biden pledges more military aid to Israel
Biden pledged more military assistance for Israel, which already receives $3.8bn in US military aid.
“We’re surging additional military assistance, including ammunition and interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome,” he said referring to Israel’s anti-missile system.
“We’re going to make sure that Israel does not run out of these critical assets to defend its cities and its citizens.”
President Biden
The US president called on Congress to take “urgent action to fund the national security requirements of our critical partners”, likely referring to both Israel and Ukraine, the latter of which is fending off a full-scale invasion from Russia.
“This is not about party or politics. It’s about the security of our world, the security of the United States of America,” he said.
Biden added that his administration is in “near constant communication” with Israeli partners.
According to the White House, Biden has been closely following the situation with daily briefings from his security team. Earlier on Tuesday, he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the third time in as many days.
