Biden calls on ‘international community’ to provide ‘security measures’ in Gaza after war

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

US President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference after his meeting with China's President President Xi Jinping at the Filoli Estate in Woodside, California, Nov, 15, 2023. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
US President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference after his meeting with China's President President Xi Jinping at the Filoli Estate in Woodside, California, Nov, 15, 2023. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

US President Joe Biden for the first time calls on the international community to help manage the security of Gaza for an interim period after the war.

“The international community must commit resources to support the people of Gaza in the immediate aftermath of this crisis, including interim security measures,” Biden writes in a Washington Post op-ed.

While Biden envisions a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority eventually returning to govern the Gaza Strip, Washington has recognized that the PA is not currently in a state to do so and has been trying to rally Arab allies to help manage Gaza’s security in the interim.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will maintain overall security responsibility for Gaza for an unspecified period of time and will not hand it over to “international forces.” He has also all but rejected a return of the PA to Gaza.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also rejected Biden’s proposal, telling the IISS Manama Dialogue 2023 that “no Arab troops” will be deployed in Gaza after the war, as Amman’s ties with Jerusalem deteriorate further.

For his part, Biden writes in the op-ed that the international community should “establish a reconstruction mechanism to sustainably meet Gaza’s long-term needs.”

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