Biden considering trip to Israel in the coming days, but travel isn’t final, according to AP source

CAIRO – President Joe Biden is considering a trip to Israel in the coming days but no travel has been finalized, a senior management authentic mentioned Sunday. It could be a formidable image of sympathy and improve following the brutal attack by Hamas.

A trip could be an opportunity for Biden to in my opinion verify to the Israeli folks the U.S. is status company in the back of them. But it could come amid rising fears {that a} looming Israeli transfer into Gaza may just spark a much wider warfare with devastating humanitarian consequences.

And Biden’s presence might be observed as a provocative transfer by means of Hamas’ leader sponsor, Iran, or doubtlessly considered as tone deaf by means of Arab countries as civilian casualties mount in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has already been touring round the Mideast this previous week making an attempt to save you the war with Hamas from igniting a broader regional battle.

The authentic may just now not publicly speak about interior deliberations about the attainable presidential travel and spoke to The Associated Press on situation of anonymity.

Biden additionally made his most powerful public statements but to restrain Israel after the Oct. 7 assault that killed greater than 1,400 folks together with a minimum of 30 U.S. voters, caution in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that aired Sunday that Israel must now not reoccupy Gaza.

“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden mentioned. “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 received the elections the subsequent 12 months.

Still, Biden mentioned, “taking out the extremists … is a necessary requirement.”

Biden and his management officers have refused to criticize Israel or its bombing marketing campaign that has killed civilians in Gaza. But they have got steered Israel, Egypt and different countries to permit for humanitarian assist and provides into the worsening battle zone.

“I’m assured that Israel goes to act underneath the laws of warfare,” 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, in the meantime, heard complaint of Israel’s army operation from Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. After Cairo he traveled on to Jordan and deliberate to go back to Israel on Monday, wearing to Israeli leaders the comments he won in a hurry of conferences with leaders during the Arab international.

Egypt’s state-run media mentioned el-Sissi instructed Blinken that Israel’s Gaza operation has exceeded “the right of self-defense” and changed into “a collective punishment.”

Blinken instructed newshounds sooner than 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 attainable human price in Gaza, Blinken mentioned “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 additionally appointed David Satterfield, a former ambassador to Lebanon and Turkey, to lead U.S. efforts to get humanitarian help to “vulnerable people through the Middle East.” Satterfield was once anticipated to arrive in Israel on Monday.

From Washington, Biden’s nationwide safety adviser mentioned the U.S. was once now not “making requests or demands of Israel with respect to its military operations.” Jake Sullivan, making the rounds of the Sunday TV news displays, mentioned the management was once “simply stating our basic principles — the principles upon which this country is based and all democracies, including Israel, are based. It’s what makes us different from the terrorists, that in fact we respect civilian life.”

He mentioned the U.S. was once “not interfering in their military planning or trying to give them instructions or requests specific.” Sullivan mentioned the U.S. is conveying the message in public and in non-public that “all military operations should be conducted consistent with law of war, that civilians should be protected, that civilians should have a real opportunity to get to safety” and feature get right of entry to to meals, water, medication and refuge.

Those remarks marked a shift in the U.S. management’s feedback in fresh days as officers have heard considerations from Arab leaders. Those leaders expressed the penalties of what a humanitarian disaster as a consequence of an Israeli floor offensive would don’t most effective to Palestinians but additionally in inflaming public evaluations in Arab countries and doubtlessly destabilizing somewhat pleasant nations.

Sullivan additionally mentioned the U.S. has been not able up to now to get American voters out of Gaza thru Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza.

Blinken made transparent in Egypt that the U.S. won’t waver in supporting Israel, pronouncing, “We will stand with it today, tomorrow and every day and we’re doing that in word and also in deed.’’

In his roughly hourlong meeting with Prince Mohammed at the de facto Saudi leader’s private farm outside Riyadh, Blinken “highlighted the United States’ unwavering focus on halting terrorist attacks by Hamas, securing the release of all hostages, and preventing the conflict from spreading,” the State Department mentioned.

“The two affirmed their shared commitment to protecting civilians and to advancing stability across the Middle East and beyond,” according to a division commentary.

The Saudi description of the assembly centered totally on Palestinian civilians, echoing the sentiments that the different Arab leaders with whom Blinken has met. It mentioned Saudi Arabia would object to the concentrated on of “civilians in any way or disrupt(ing) infrastructure and vital interests that affect their daily lives.”

The prince “wired the want to paintings to speak about techniques to forestall the army operations that claimed the lives of blameless folks,“ the Saudi Press Agency mentioned in a record about the assembly.

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Lee reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Sam Magdy in Cairo and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this record.