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President Joe Biden plans to visit Israel on Wednesday to show solidarity and try to influence the conduct of its war against Hamas, as concern mounts over a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and a possible regional escalation of the conflict.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, speaking from Tel Aviv on Monday evening, said Biden would reaffirm the US’s “solidarity with Israel and our ironclad commitment to its security”.
After meetings with Israeli leaders, Blinken said that, at Washington’s request, the US and Israel had agreed to “develop a plan” to get aid to Gaza residents and potentially create “areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way”.
“It is critical that aid begin flowing into Gaza as soon as possible,” he said.
Officials in Washington estimate that 500 to 600 US nationals remain trapped in Gaza. The Israeli military says there are also 199 hostages taken by Hamas.
The US and regional powers have been pushing Israel to allow aid into Gaza and Egypt to open the Rafah crossing between its territory and the south of the bombarded enclave for other countries’ passport holders.
The Israeli military confirmed on Tuesday that the crossing remained closed.
Egypt has said it would allow humanitarian aid into Gaza but insisted it would only permit people with dual citizenship into its territory.
Some foreign officials have said Israel, which has ordered almost half of Gaza’s population to move to the south of the enclave, was prepared to let people leave Gaza for Egypt, but was resisting the entry of humanitarian aid.
Gaza has been without mains electricity for six days and is running short on water after Israel imposed a blockade following the Hamas attacks on October 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
Palestinian health officials say Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 2,700 people and that there are reports of more than 1,000 people missing in the rubble.
The UN has said that the more than 600,000 people who have fled to the south of the enclave are “in increasingly dire conditions”.
In a move that reignited the trauma of this month’s attack and which the Israeli military described as “psychological warfare, Isis playbook material”, Hamas on Monday released its first video of a hostage, a 21-year-old Israeli-French woman called Mia Shem.
The Biden administration is also seeking to contain hostilities, amid fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could trigger a broader regional conflict.
John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesperson, said that after visiting Israel Biden would travel to Amman to meet the leaders of Jordan and Egypt, and would also meet Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, during a one-day trip to the region.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it was continuing operations targeting Hamas leaders and operatives in Gaza and was active on the country’s northern border with Lebanon, responding to missile attacks by Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militia in the south of the country.
It added that it had killed four people who had tried to infiltrate the country from Lebanon wearing explosive vests.
In a reference to a planned ground incursion into Hamas, Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson, said the IDF was continuing to “prepare ourselves for enhanced military operations in Gaza.”
He added: “The aim of this war is to completely dismantle Hamas and its military capabilities. and to change the situation in southern Israel . . . for generations.”
In a sign of the rising regional tensions, Iran’s foreign minister on Monday warned that Islamist militants it backs could resort to “pre-emptive” attacks against Israel.
“The leaders of resistance groups will not allow the Zionist regime to act in any way it likes in Gaza,” Hossein Amirabdollahian told state television.
Biden has previously warned Tehran not to escalate the war, and deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups to the region to deter Iran and Hizbollah.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber, James Politi, Samer Al-Atrush and Heba Saleh
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