President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the US will help with Israel to avert civilian fatalities as it pounded Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to do the same.
“We will continue to have your back. As you work to defend your people, we will continue to work with you and partners across the region to prevent more tragedy to innocent civilians,” Biden said after meeting Netanyahu’s war cabinet in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu raised additional allegations that Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and launched a fatal attack within Israel on October 7, purposefully places civilians near objectives in the hope of using them as shields.
But Netanyahu told Biden: “As we proceed in this war, Israel will do everything it can to keep civilians out of harm’s way.
“We have asked them and we’ll continue to ask them to move to safer areas. We will continue to work with you, Mr. President, to assure that the minimum requirements are met,” Netanyahu said.
Biden is in Israel to express his condolences following the deadly Hamas attack, which provoked an Israeli air campaign and the possibility of a ground incursion in the Gaza Strip.
A strike on a hospital in Gaza on the eve of his arrival killed between 200 and 300 people, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
They blamed Israel for the strike, which sparked outrage throughout the Arab world.
Biden supports Israel’s claim that Islamic Jihad fighters misfired a missile.
“The entire world was rightfully outraged,” Netanyahu said of the hospital strike. “But this outrage should be directed not at Israel, but at the terrorists.”