Biden Says He Wants Israel to Leave Gaza

President Joe Biden claimed on Monday to have been "quietly working" on getting Israel to "significantly" or completely withdraw from Gaza.

Israel has been engaged in heated conflict with Hamas since October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian militant group carried out a surprise attack in the south of the country that killed roughly 1,200 people, according to the Associated Press. Since then, Israeli military strikes in the Gaza region have, in turn, killed over 20,000 people, the AP has also reported, leading to a significant international outcry for a ceasefire.

A staunch longtime ally of the Middle Eastern nation, the U.S. government has stood by the Israeli government throughout the attack and provided military aid, much to the consternation of pro-Palestinian voices. While Biden and White House officials have urged Israel to minimize the impact on civilians from its strikes in Gaza, they have stopped short of backing more than a temporary ceasefire, claiming that such a move would benefit Hamas.

The U.S. government was previously credited, along with Egypt and Qatar, in helping negotiate a temporary ceasefire in Gaza that ultimately lasted for a week in late November. During that time, 105 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

On Monday, the president appeared at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the site of a 2015 shooting by a white supremacist gunman that killed nine people. During his address, he was interrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, with one woman, according to The Hill, shouting, "If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine."

In response, Biden said that he had been working to negotiate a significant deescalation of Israel's attacks on Gaza.

"I understand their passion," the president said. "And I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza."

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Biden has, in the months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, called for a two-state solution to come in the wake of the conflict. On November 15, during a press conference in San Francisco, the president said that a "real" Palestinian state must exist alongside Israel.

"I can tell you, I don't think it ultimately ends until there's a two-state solution," Biden said.

The establishment of such a state has long been a stated policy goal of the U.S. government, though successive presidential administrations have been unable to bring it to fruition. Since the beginning of the recent conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated this goal alongside the president.

"We think the best way to resolve it remains a two-state solution," Blinken said in an October 8 interview. "And one that ensures that Palestinians and Israelis alike know equal measures of democracy, of opportunity, of dignity in their lives. That's why we've been very focused on that track as well."