Amid the ongoing Israel invasion of the Gaza Strip, President Joe Biden and the White House remain supportive of a two-state solution to the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces are currently engaged in an effort to depose the terrorist group Hamas from control of the coastal region in response to a attack that saw its forces seize border towns, take more than 200 hostages, and kill roughly 1,200 civilians. Israel bombardments have attracted widespread international condemnation, including from the United Nations and Biden himself, who excoriated Jerusalem for its "indiscriminate bombing."
Despite public disagreements with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "President Biden still believes in the promise and the potential of a two-state solution. We understand that that's going to be elusive," Kirby told CBS reporter Major Garrett.
Biden and Netanyahu have openly disagreed on the fate of the Gaza Strip, with Biden backing control by the Palestinian Authority and Netanyahu opposing such a move. The PA governs the disparate patches of territory in the West Bank not under Israeli occupation and has indicated a willingness to assume control of the region.
The "two-state solution" has been a decades-long diplomatic goal of the international community, which has aimed to reach an amicable division of the former British Mandate of Palestine between Israeli and Palestinian governments.
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