WASHINGTON – President Biden pledged “ironclad” US support for Israel Wednesday should Iran follow through on its threats to strike the Jewish state – despite calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implement an extended cease-fire in the war against Hamas days earlier.
As US officials warn that an Iranian strike on Israel could take place soon, the 81-year-old president said he told Netanyahu that the US would do everything possible to protect its Middle East ally.
“We also want to address the Iranian threat to launch a signif… they’re threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel,” Biden told reporters at the White House during a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad — let me say it again, ironclad.”
“We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security,” the president added.
US officials suspect a missile or drone attack from Tehran could be “imminent,” according to a Bloomberg report Wednesday that cited anonymous “people familiar with the intelligence.”
It remains unclear whether such an incursion would shift the current war in the Gaza Strip into a broader Middle Eastern conflict.
Biden’s words of support came after he called on Netanyahu to pause Israel’s war on Hamas to allow for humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza.
“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a cease-fire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” he told Univision in an interview that was recorded April 3, but aired Tuesday night.
While Netanyahu is vehemently against a sustained cease-fire without Hamas’ release of Israeli hostages, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday announced several new initiatives to boost the daily amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
Among the efforts are the creation of two new aid routes to Gaza through Jordan, as well as a “coordination and deconfliction mechanism” to better cooperate with international aid organizations facilitating humanitarian aid deliveries, the Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.
“Thank you to the US administration for their longstanding support during this war, and for their leadership on the humanitarian issue as it pertains both to the hostage issue and to the delivery of aid,” Gallant said in a post to X. “We are working closely with the US ambassador and US officials.”
In another post, Gallant said he and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew toured the Israel Defense Force’s new “Humanitarian Coordination and Deconfliction Cell” together on Sunday.
“As we work to achieve the goals of this war, we recognize the importance of facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid – focusing on the influx of aid and coordination with partners,” he wrote.
The new initiatives come after Biden and Netanyahu held a tense phone call in the wake of the IDF’s strikes last week on World Central Kitchen vehicles, killing seven aid workers employed by the Washington-based charity.
In a preliminary investigative report issued Friday, Israel claimed the strikes were taken after the IDF falsely assumed there were Hamas gunmen inside the vehicles.
Supporters of Israel argue that the bulk of the aid that enters Gaza is stolen by Hamas, leaving ordinary Palestinians to fend for themselves.