President Joe Biden arrived in Israel amid tight security on Wednesday as he visited the war-torn region on a high-risk diplomatic trip.
His visit comes a day after a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital that killed more than 500 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The White House said Tuesday evening that the death toll from Hamas’ first attack in Israel had risen to 31 Americans killed, with 13 Americans still missing.
The update came from press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and spokesman John Kirby during an audio-only briefing aboard Air Force One en route to Israel.
President Joe Biden salutes as he boards Air Force One en route to Israel at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.Jess Rapfogel/AP
Meanwhile, the US plans to impose new sanctions on several Hamas leaders this week, according to a US official.
The Treasury Department plans to announce the sanctions sometime this week, the official said. The Treasury Department declined to comment.
Earlier Tuesday, a senior Treasury Department official vowed that his agency would “use our resources to address the financing of Hamas and the financing of terrorism overall.”
“Disrupting Hamas’s financing operations is nothing new for us. This has been a Treasury Department priority for decades,” Brian Nelson, undersecretary of state for terrorism and financial intelligence, said at a conference. “We have the ability to target this infrastructure and its supporters, be they political leaders, activists, intermediaries, financiers, investors or entire global procurement networks.”
The Israeli armed forces have again called on residents of Gaza City to evacuate.
“The IDF calls on residents of #GazaCity to evacuate south for their protection,” said a post on the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories X (formerly Twitter) page early Wednesday morning local time.
Palestinian families run from their homes after Israeli airstrikes in their neighborhood in Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. Abed Khaled/AP
Colonel Elad Goren, head of the civil department at COGAT, said in a video message that humanitarian aid would be sent to the areas where people would be evacuated “if necessary.”
“In recent days, the IDF has called on residents of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes and move to the south of Wadi Gaza,” he said in the video post shared on X. “This measure was taken to protect them.” . We recommend moving to open areas in western Khan Yunus and sending international humanitarian assistance there if necessary. Hamas is trying to prevent the population from evacuating the northern Gaza Strip.”
The post shared maps showing where the IDF wanted to move people.
An official briefed on President Joe Biden’s arrangements told ABC News that planning for a trip to Israel began more than a week ago when the idea seemed highly unlikely.
Planning continued throughout the week and into the weekend, with the agency running through various variants and contingencies, taking into account different location possibilities and the length of time Biden wanted to stay in the region.
A US intelligence spokesman said: “While there will be an extremely complex security plan implemented in coordination with our military, State Department and Israeli partners, we are unable to comment on specifics of the movement.”
-Josh Margolin and Luke Barr from ABC News
By the Numbers: US Presidential Trips to IsraelA look at the numbers behind the story of past presidential visits to Israel as President Joe Biden travels to the region amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.ABCNews.com
The death toll from Hamas’ first attack has risen to 31 Americans killed and 13 still missing, John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Tuesday evening aboard Air Force One.
Kirby also said that President Biden will have the opportunity to “meet some of the families. There will be some of the families of those who lost loved ones in Israel and some of the families whose fate is still unknown.” We expect that some of the family members will also be family members of hostages that we know of that Hamas took them.”
-Ben Gittleson from ABC News