WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is considering a trip to Israel in the coming days but no travel has been finalized, a senior administration official said Sunday. It would be a powerful symbol of sympathy and support following the brutal attack by Hamas.
A trip would be a chance for Biden to personally affirm to the Israeli people the U.S. is standing firm behind them. But it would come amid growing fears that a looming Israeli move into Gaza could spark a wider war with devastating humanitarian consequences.
And Biden’s presence could be seen as a provocative move by Hamas’ chief sponsor, Iran, or potentially viewed as tone deaf by Arab nations as civilian casualties mount in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already been traveling around the Mideast this past week trying to prevent the war with Hamas from igniting a broader regional conflict.
The official could not publicly discuss internal deliberations about the potential presidential travel and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Biden also made his strongest public statements yet to restrain Israel after the Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,400 people including at least 30 U.S. citizens, warning in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday that Israel should not reoccupy Gaza.
“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said. “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas, and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.”
Israel left Gaza in 2005; Hamas won the elections the next year.
Still, Biden said, “taking out the extremists … is a necessary requirement.”
Biden and his administration officials have refused to criticize Israel or its bombing campaign that has killed civilians in Gaza.
But they’ve urged Israel, Egypt and other nations to allow for humanitarian aid and supplies into the worsening conflict zone.
“I’m confident that Israel is going to act under the rules of war,” Biden said in the interview. “There’s standards that democratic institutions and countries go by. And I’m confident that there’s going to be an ability for the innocents in Gaza to be able to have access to medicine and food and water.”
Blinken, meanwhile, heard criticism of Israel’s military operation from Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. After Cairo he traveled on to Jordan and planned to return to Israel today, carrying to Israeli leaders the feedback he received in a rush of meetings with leaders throughout the Arab world.
Egypt’s state-run media said el-Sissi told Blinken that Israel’s Gaza operation has exceeded “the right of self-defense” and turned into “a collective punishment.”
Blinken told reporters before leaving Egypt that “Israel has the right, indeed it has the obligation to defend itself against these attacks from Hamas and to try to do what it can to make sure that this never happens again.”
Mindful of the potential human cost in Gaza, Blinken said “the way that Israel does this matters. It needs to do it in a way that affirms the shared values that we have for human life and human dignity, taking every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians.”
Earlier Sunday, the envoy met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, talks that built upon earlier sessions with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
Blinken said that what he heard in every meeting with Arab leaders “was a determination of shared view that we have to do everything possible to make sure this doesn’t spread to other places, a shared view to safeguard innocent lives, a shared view to get assistance to Palestinians in Gaza who need it and we’re working very much on that.”
The White House also appointed David Satterfield, a former ambassador to Lebanon and Turkey, to lead U.S. efforts to get humanitarian assistance to “vulnerable people through the Middle East.”