US President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly in New York City, US, Sept. 20, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

US President Joe Biden will make a high stakes visit to Israel on Wednesday to show support for its war on Hamas, after Washington said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to let humanitarian aid reach Gazans.

Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that controls Gaza after Hamas terrorists killed over 1,400 people, mainly civilians, during a rampage through southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7, the deadliest single day in Israel‘s 75-year history.

Israel has responded with air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza and imposed a blockade to prevent the Palestinian terrorist group from boosting its capabilities. The Jewish state has also urged Gazans to evacuate southward ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive into Gaza, where Hamas has been holding about 200 hostages since its Oct. 7 terror onslaught.

Hamas, which routinely fires rockets into Israel and uses civilians as human shields, has blocked Gazans from evacuating, according to the Israeli military.

Scores of trucks carrying vital supplies for Gaza headed towards the Rafah crossing in Egypt on Tuesday, the only access point to the enclave outside of Israel‘s control, but there was no clear indication that they would be able to enter.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Biden’s planned visit at the end of hours of talks with Netanyahu, in which he said Netanyahu had agreed to develop a plan to get humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians. He gave no details.

Biden will “hear from Israel what it needs to defend its people,” Blinken said, and also hear how Israel “will conduct its operations in a way that minimizes civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hamas.” He added that Israel “has the right and indeed the duty to defend its people from Hamas and other terrorists and to prevent future attacks.”

Washington is also trying to rally Arab states to help head off a wider regional war, after Iran pledged “preemptive action” from the “resistance front” of its allies which include the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon.

After visiting Israel, Biden is expected to travel to Jordan to meet King Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

He will also meet Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exerts limited self rule in the West Bank but lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007.

The PA’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, echoing the rhetoric of Hamas leaders.

Israel says 199 hostages were taken to Gaza during the Hamas invasion last week. Hamas released a video overnight of one French-Israeli hostage, Maya Schem, calling on world leaders to help her and other captives get home.

Israel‘s military called the video “psychological terror against Israeli citizens.” Schem’s mother told a press conference she was “begging the world to bring my baby back home.”

Biden will get an update on the scores of hostages taken by Hamas during his trip to Israel. The US State Department has said 29 US citizens were killed in the Hamas attacks in Israel, with 15 citizens and one lawful permanent resident unaccounted for.

The United States has stationed a carrier strike group in the eastern Mediterranean in a show of force for Israel and a second is on the way.

In addition to trying to get aid through the Rafah crossing, Washington also wants it opened to let out Gazans with foreign passports, including several hundred Palestinian Americans.

However, even if the crossing opens, the overwhelming majority of Gazans will not be let out. Egypt has said it would allow medical evacuations but rejects any mass exodus.

US officials say Israel is concerned that any aid it lets into Gaza could be used to benefit Hamas, and it is working on a plan to ensure that any deliveries are monitored and controlled. A senior US official said Biden’s newly appointed envoy for humanitarian affairs in the Middle East, David Satterfield, would meet Israelis on Tuesday to start hammering out details.

CLASHES IN ISRAEL‘S NORTH

As Israel plans an expected ground offensive into Gaza to root out Hamas, cross border fighting has also intensified on a second front on Israel‘s northern border with Lebanon. Clashes there have been the deadliest since the last full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terror group based in Lebanon, in 2006.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had killed four people who had tried to cross the border to plant explosives. Israel ordered the evacuation on Monday of 28 of its villages in a 2-km-deep (1.2-mile) zone near the Lebanese border.

Iran, which sponsors both Hamas and Hezbollah, has celebrated the Hamas attacks on Israel but denies being behind them. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state TV that “preemptive action” would be taken against Israel in the coming hours.

“All options are open and we cannot be indifferent to the war crimes committed against the people of Gaza,” Amirabdollahian said. “The resistance front is capable of waging a long-term war with the enemy.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told a group of students: “No one can confront Muslims and the resistance forces if the Zionist regime’s crimes against Palestinians continue.”

Netanyahu told parliament on Monday he had “a message for Iran and Hezbollah: don’t test us in the north. Don’t make the same mistake you once made. Because today the price you will pay will be much heavier.”