Speaking on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Report” on Thursday, Biden campaign co-chair Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) said the best way to get humanitarian aid to Gaza is to reach a ceasefire with the hostages, acknowledging that Hamas could end the conflict now by releasing the hostages and trying to convince President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the fighting, saying, “Israel needs to cooperate fully with the international community to provide aid.”
“Collision avoidance is an issue I raised directly,” Coons said. [Prime Minister] “Prime Minister Netanyahu agrees, and so do many U.S. leaders, including the president. It’s very hard to distribute aid in the middle of a war zone. The physical destruction on the ground in Gaza is devastating. The Erez Gate in the north has been reopened, and the pier… is helping to alleviate the humanitarian damage, but not at the rate that’s needed. Israel needs to cooperate fully with the international community to get aid delivered, and the best way to do that is to achieve a hostage and ceasefire agreement with Hamas. We’ve been going after Hamas as hard as we can indirectly through Qatar and Egypt, and President Biden has been tirelessly attentive to the concerns of the hostage families. There are still several Americans being held, about eight, I think.”
He added, “Let’s recall that on October 7th, Hamas carried out a horrific terrorist attack that left not only Americans dead, but people from 24 countries around the world. And today, the people being held hostage by Hamas underground in Gaza are people from more than a dozen countries, of all faiths and backgrounds. I think more people need to recognize the fact that this situation could end tomorrow if Hamas released the hostages and stopped the fighting. But frankly, this is a difficult and tense situation and paying attention to the humanitarian crisis is a key part of President Biden’s response.”
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