U.S. President Joe Biden weighed a trip to Israel while he cautioned against long-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as the White House sought to balance support for the country with fears that the regional crisis could escalate.
No decision about whether to travel to Israel had yet been made, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions, and a spokesperson for the National Security Council said the White House didn’t have a trip to announce.
But the possible trip — and acknowledgment of concerns voiced by Palestinians in Gaza and Arab leaders across the region — were the latest signal that the U.S. was trying to keep the crisis from further escalating.