Biden says he's giving $100 million in humanitarian aid to Palestinians to ensure no one is living 'by the rule of terrorists'
- Biden announced $100 million in humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians.
- His remarks come over a week after Israel declared war against militant group Hamas.
With the war between Israel and Hamas approaching its two-week mark, President Joe Biden announced humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians harmed in the conflict.
On Wednesday, Biden arrived in Israel following militant group Hamas' attack on southern towns in Israel last week. Since then, thousands of Israeli and Palestinian civilians have died as a result of the war, and as it prepared to escalate attacks on Hamas, Israel ordered the evacuation of over one million Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The evacuation order prompted concerns from the United Nations, which said Israel was breaching international law by forcing civilians to leave through a dangerous warzone without access to food, water, or electricity. Some Democratic lawmakers called for Biden to get emergency aid to those civilians, and the president confirmed he would be doing so during his Wednesday remarks.
"Today I'm also announcing $100 million in new US funding for humanitarian assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank. This money will support more than 1 million displaced in conflict affected Palestinians, including emergency needs in Gaza," Biden said.
"You are a Jewish state, but you're also a democracy," he added. "Like the United States, you don't live by the rules of terrorist. You live by the rule of law. What sets us apart from terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life, Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian, everyone."
Biden has also called for Egypt to open its border to allow Palestinian civilians to leave the warzone. His administration is also expected to ask Congress for $100 billion in supplemental funding for Israel and Ukraine — two wars Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said the US can "certainly" afford to support.
However, chaos in the House is stalling the prospects of passing an aid package, given House lawmakers have been unable to select a new speaker of the house after they ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate is ready to act first to pass a funding package, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed support for funding that tied Ukraine and Israel together.
"This is all interconnected," McConnell said. "You've got the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Russians and the Chinese, sort of, on the same side against the democratic world, so there is a connection between all of this."