Joe Biden twice confused Gaza with Ukraine when he announced that the US would provide much-needed airdrop aid to the Palestinians, according to The Guardian.
The 81-year-old US president confirmed on Friday that humanitarian aid would be airdroped to Gaza and said the US would “insist” that Israel do more to help those suffering from hunger and the effects of war.
Biden, hosting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Washington, twice mistakenly mentioned airdrops to help “Ukraine,” leading White House officials to clarify that he was actually talking about the Gaza Strip.
“Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere near enough. Innocent lives are on the line and children’s lives are on the line. We won’t stand by until we get more aid in there. We should be getting hundreds of trucks in, not just several.”
Biden’s statement came a day after the Hamas-run health ministry said over 30,000 Palestinians had died since the war began last October. Approximately 2.2 million Palestinians are severely food insecure as a result of Israel destroying food supplies and heavily restricting the delivery of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies.
Speaking in the White House on Friday, the US president said: “In the coming days, we are going to join with our friends in Jordan and others who are providing airdrops of additional food and supplies in Ukraine.”
The US would “seek to continue to continue to open up other avenues in Ukraine, including the possibility a marine corridor to deliver large amounts of humanitarian assistance. In addition to expanding deliveries by land, we are going to insist Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need,” Biden said.
The UAE, Egypt, France, Jordan, Egypt and the UK have already delivered supplies by air.
