US President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans for the US military to establish a temporary post along the coast of the Gaza Strip to bring much-needed additional humanitarian aid to the war-torn enclave.
Speaking during his State of the Union address – an annual meeting hosted by the US president in the presence of the US Congress – Biden said the structure on the Mediterranean coast would receive “large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters”.
“This temporary pier would allow for a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance arriving in Gaza every day,” Biden said.
“But Israel must also do its part. Israel must allow more aid to Gaza and ensure that aid workers are not caught in the crossfire.”
“No American forces will be on the ground in Gaza,” said the president. It was not immediately clear when the port would be operational.
Biden's decision to order the construction of the temporary port comes amid UN warning about widespread hunger among the enclave's 2.3 million Palestinians, almost five months after Israel began its offensive in Gaza.
Previously, a senior Biden administration official said additional assistance would be coordinated with Israel, the United Nations (UN) and non-governmental humanitarian organizations. Initial aid shipments will come through the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, the official said.
A senior US administration official also previously said that Israel has “prepared a new land crossing directly into northern Gaza,” a development that comes after weeks of increased US pressure as the humanitarian crisis worsens.
The Israeli government allowed only a quarter of the humanitarian aid missions planned by the UN and partners to enter areas of northern Gaza in February, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Thursday.
Support for Ukraine
Joe Biden declared democracy under threat at home and abroad and called former President Donald Trump's stance on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) unacceptable, aimed at contrasting views with those of his 2024 Republican opponent.
The president, speaking before a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, opened his comments with a direct criticism of Trump for comments calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade other NATO nations if they did not spend more on defense. .
“Abroad, Russia’s Putin is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos across Europe and beyond. If anyone in this room thinks that Putin will end up in Ukraine, I guarantee you that he will not,” the president said.
Biden, who has been pressing Congress to provide additional funding to Ukraine for its war with Russia, also had a message for Putin: “We will not give up,” he said, taking advantage of the speech to once again press for a package of $95 billion in arms aid to Ukraine and aid to Israel – a package blocked by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“Ukraine can stop Putin if we are on its side [Ucrânia] and provide the weapons you need to defend yourself. That is all. That's all Ukraine asks for. They are not asking for American soldiers. In fact, there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine. And I’m determined to keep it that way,” Biden said.
The president's wife's guests for the speech included Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who was in Washington when Sweden formally joined NATO on Thursday, two years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
“Harrowing” war
“I know that the last five months have been distressing for many people: for the Israeli people, for the Palestinian people and for many here in America,” commented Biden about the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
While blaming Hamas for starting the conflict, he highlighted the high number of civilian deaths among Palestinians and placed the responsibility on Israel for allowing aid to flow to Gaza. Aid, he said, “cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”
“Israel has the right to go after Hamas. Hamas ended this conflict by releasing hostages, laying down weapons… it could end it by releasing the hostages, laying down weapons and handing over those responsible for October 7th. But Israel has an additional burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population like cowards,” he opined.
Speech criticized by Trump
Former US President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform suffered multiple outages shortly after President Joe Biden began his State of the Union address, hampering Trump's plans for a live rebuttal.
Users reported outages on the site around 9pm on Thursday (local time), with more than 3,000 outage reports recorded by outage tracker website Downdetector within 30 minutes.
Many users encountered long loading times on Trump's page, where he promised live commentary on the speech. Despite several attempts, the page was restarted without resolution.
An hour later, Trump had posted more than 20 times on Truth Social, criticizing Biden's stance on Putin, Iran, and labeling him “angry and crazy.”
In one of the posts, Trump criticized Biden's contrary position on Iran.
“He made Iran rich. That's why we have this problem in the Middle East. With me, Iran was bankrupt! He is the reason the Middle East is exploding!” Trump posted.
See also: Joe Biden delivers State of the Union address
(Published by Gustavo Zanfer, with information from CNN International and by Ivan Romero, Ashraf Fahim and Scott Dill of Reuters)
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
