The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has issued a warning “to any actor hostile to Israel who seeks to take advantage of the situation” after the surprise attack by the Palestinian organization Hamas.
Biden said in his statement that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and stressed that the United States was “ready to offer all appropriate means of support” to its ally.
In a statement broadcast on television from the White House, Biden stressed that US support for Israel is “rock solid and unwavering.”
Statements along the same lines as those made by the Pentagon hours earlier in which it reaffirmed the United States’ “unwavering” commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself and promised to ensure that its key ally had the means to do so.
“Our commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself remains unwavering,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement, adding that he will work “to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from “indiscriminate violence and terrorism”.
Washington has “unequivocally condemned the unjustified attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians,” said Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. “There is never any justification for terrorism,” she added.
For his part, President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, has assured that he is in close contact with his Israeli partners. “We support the government and people of Israel and send our condolences to the Israelis who lost their lives in these attacks,” the statement added.
At least 40 people have been killed since the start of the Hamas offensive this Saturday, during which rockets were fired towards Israel and gunmen infiltrated Israeli communities, emergency services said.