On October 15, 2023, Joe Biden, the current president of the United States of America, said that the Hamas militant group must be eliminated, but there should be a path to the Palestinian State after the top US officials warned the war between the Hamas and Israel would escalate.
Joe Biden did not think that the American troops would be necessary on the ground as the Israeli troops are one of the most “formidable fighting forces,” even as American warships headed to the area amid growing clashes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Biden’s Message
Israel unleashed a ferocious bombing campaign over Gaza in retaliation for the unprecedented attacks orchestrated by the Palestinian Entity called Hamas eight days ago that killed some 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians. When asked if he believes Hamas must be eliminated completely, Biden said, “Yes, I do, but there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to the Palestinian State, he said during a CBS interview broadcast on October 15, 2023.
The US President warned that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza but stated that taking out Hezbollah and Hamas was a necessary requirement He said it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again. Israel captured and occupied West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. It withdrew its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005 before taking Hamas control of the strip in 2007. The conflict has sent tensions roaring.
“There is a risk of an escalation of the conflict, the opening of a second front north, and of course Iran’s involvement,” the White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told CBS earlier in the day. Gaza authority states that more than 2670 people have been killed there, a quarter of them being children. Casualties are expected to rise as Israel prepares for a ground assault on the tiny and crammed density populated Gaza Strip or enclave that could start within days.
US Naval Deployment
The US Defence Secretary Llyod Austin announced the deployment of a second aircraft carrier group on October 14, 2023, calling it a sign of the resolve to deter any state or nonstate actor seeking to escalate the war.” The Aircraft Carrier Dwight D Eisenhower will join a small fleet, including the massive Gerald Ford aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.
Message to Iran
“Iran is the elephant in the room,” a US Defence official briefed on the situation said about the increasing military presence, The carriers are accompanied by warships and attack planes. Every effort is being made to stop this from becoming a regional war or conflict. Biden said that his message to Iran is not to escalate the conflict.
Response from Iran
The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollah warned on October 15, 2023, that his country could act, telling an international media agency that it had conveyed a message to Israeli officials that if they do not cease their atrocities in Gaza, Iran will not remain as observers. If the scope of the war expands, significant damages will also be inflicted on the US,” he warned.
Biden told CBS that the threat of terrorism in the US has increased due to growing unrest in the Middle East. He said, however, that the US can take care of the wars in Israel and Ukraine and still maintain its international defence.
The violence on Israel’s northern border is already escalating. The Lebanon Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters launched attacks on many Israeli army posts and a northern border village on October 15, 2023, and Israel retaliated with strikes in Lebanon. The US is urging Israel to hold off its ground offensive to allow humanitarian for Gaza’s residents trapped in the area. Several US officials said . Jake Sullivan discussed a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine that will be significantly higher than the previously reported 2 billion USD.
He told CBS that Biden planned to have intensive talks on the package this week with the US Congress, which has been hobbled by the Republican struggles to pick a new House of Representatives. The Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking in Tel Aviv On October 15, 2023, said that the US Senate could move first to approve more funding for Israel. We are not waiting for the House of Representatives, he said,” On the same day., another Senator, Lindsey Graham, said that he is travelling to the region with other senators in the coming days to push negotiations Between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Humanitarian Crisis
US Government Officials also said that they are trying to mobilise to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, anticipating a brutal ground offensive. Israeli officials made it clear that it would not be an easy or swift campaign. It faces the challenges that score scores of hostages seized by Hamas on October 7, 2023, could now be held in a warren of underground tunnels which its soldiers must clear to destroy Hamas.
In a message on X, Biden said, “We must not lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with the appalling attacks and are suffering as a result of them.” The US has appointed former ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, as a special envoy for the Middle East humanitarian crisis His focus will be to “ensure the safety of civilians,” the State Department said.
We are pushing Israel to delay any action on the ground, said one US official briefed on the situation. Asked directly if the US was pushing Israel to delay its ground operations of civilians, Sullivan told a media agency that “we are not interfering in big military planning or trying to give them instructions.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on October 15, 2023, said that the Egyptian Border Controlled border crossing in Israel and that the US was working with Egypt, Israel, and the UN to get assistance through it. Hundreds of tonnes of aid from several countries have been held up int the Sinai Peninsula for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some Foreign passport holders through the Rafah Crossing.
