Washington: Days after Israel-Palestine declared a ceasefire following 11-days of bloodshed, US President Joe Biden extended his support to help organize efforts to rebuild Gaza even as he insisted on a two-state solution–with a sovereign Palestinian state and Jerusalem as their shared capital with Isreal–as “the only answer” to the conflict.
Biden asserted that he had asked the Israelis to stop “inter-communal fighting” in the flashpoint city of Jerusalem,” reported AFP. He, however, emphasized there has been no shift in his commitment to Israel’s security.
“My party still supports Israel,” Biden said. “Let’s get something straight here,” he added. “Until the region says unequivocally they acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as an independent Jewish state, there will be no peace.” Biden was speaking at a White House news conference on the first full day of a cease-fire after 11 days of the Israeli-Hamas conflict.
Both Israel and Hamas had on Friday announced a cease-fire, halting a bruising 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip.
Israel had been launching massive raids on the Palestinian enclave with airstrikes, artillery shellings, and drone attacks since May 10, in response to the rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza to retaliate for Israel’s violation of the sacred Islamic holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
This was the heaviest fighting between Israel and Gaza militants since 2014 and killed 232 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, and 12 Israelis.
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