During a trip to Israel to demonstrate U.S. support for the Jewish state after the horrific terror attacks against it perpetrated by Hamas, President Joe Biden announced a $100 million aid package for present and displaced Gaza residents.
Israel agreed to allow the aid to be transported into Gaza from Egypt, provided the shipments are subject to inspections and that none of the aid goes to Hamas, but only to residents, The Hill reported.
In a statement released shortly after Biden’s remarks, the White House stated that non-governmental organizations and the United Nations would administer the aid program funded by the U.S.
“President Biden announced today that the United States is providing $100 million in humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank,” the White House said in a Wednesday morning statement. “This funding will help support over a million displaced and conflict-affected people with clean water, food, hygiene support, medical care, and other essential needs. The United States provides humanitarian assistance through trusted partners including UN agencies and international NGOs.”
The statement also repeated the by-now oft-repeated Democratic talking point that Palestinian civilians should not be held accountable for the actions of Hamas.
“Civilians are not to blame and should not suffer for Hamas’s horrific terrorism,” the statement said. “Civilian lives must be protected and assistance must urgently reach those in need. We will continue to work closely with partners in the region to stress the importance of upholding the law of war, supporting those who are trying to get to safety or provide assistance, and facilitating access to food, water, medical care, and shelter.”
The Palestinian people elected Hamas into effective legislative control of the Gaza Strip and West Bank in 2006. Nonetheless, Biden claimed, “Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.
“Hamas uses innocents, innocent families in Gaza, as human shields, putting their command centers, their weapons, their communications tunnels in residential areas,” he added.
Biden said in his Tel Aviv remarks that the money would go to assist “more than 1 million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians,” The Hill reported, “including emergency needs in Gaza.”
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Gaza has experienced critical shortages of food and medical supplies, as well as clean water, the outlet noted, because Israel has thus far barred supplies from entering the area from Egypt.
Biden also seemed to confirm statements by Israel that a recent hospital explosion in Gaza was caused by radical Muslim terrorists, not, as Hamas has claimed, by an Israeli airstrike.
“Based on the information we’ve seen to date, it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza,” Biden said.
In addition to humanitarian aid for displaced Palestinians, the U.S. has supplied Israel with munitions, The Hill reported. Multiple outlets have also noted U.S. military units having been put on alert for possible deployment to the Middle East.
The U.S. already has two aircraft carrier groups in the area in hopes of discouraging other regional actors, especially Hezbollah and Iran, from attacking Israel.
“We will continue to deter any actor wanting to widen this conflict,” Biden said in a Wednesday morning post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Biden also said that he would ask Congress for “unprecedented aid” to Israel in the immediate future, Reuters reported.
“We will not stand by and do nothing again,” Biden said, referring to the Nazi Holocaust. “Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
