A Palestinian state must come after war, says Biden
Omri Miran and Lishay Lavi: The Birth of their Second Daughter, Amelia, and Daughters in the Era of the Israel-Hamas War
When my sister and brother in law were kidnapped from his house in Nahal Oz, they took away Omri Miran’s wife and two daughters. The family watched the community burn and their neighbors executed after they were held captive by Hamas terrorists for hours. After Omri was taken captive to the Gaza Strip, Roni and Alma were left behind, hoping for a similar fate or worse, before Israel Defense Forces soldiers eventually rescued them.
Omri Miran and Lishay Lavi met in March 2020; their love bloomed when the world froze amid a global pandemic. Within three years, they built a home in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz situated about two miles from the Israel-Gaza Strip armistice line, married and gave birth to two daughters: Roni, who is 2 and a half years old, and Alma, just 7 months old. Omri worked with massage therapists and a gardener in the kibbutz while Lishay was involved with educational programs to integrate Muslim Bedouin-Israeli students into the college. After a sunrise that shone on the deadliest morning in the history of the state of Israel, they were optimistic about their future together.
In a conflict where emotions run high, the release of hostages can be a potent symbol of good will and a step toward envisioning the day after the war, when Hamas and its accomplices can no longer be allowed to rule the enclave.
President Biden said on Wednesday that the endpoint of the Israel-Hamas conflict has to be a Palestinian state that is “real,” existing alongside an Israeli one.
“I can tell you, I don’t think it ultimately ends until there’s a two-state solution,” Mr. Biden said at a news conference on an estate south of San Francisco after his summit with Xi Jinping, China’s leader.
Mr. Biden said he did not have a specific idea of when to tell Israel it should halt its war in Gaza. He said the fighting would end when Hamas stopped doing horrible things to Israelis. He claims that Hamas still has weapons and technology underneath hospitals in Gaza.
U.S. officials have been saying in recent days that Hamas maintains a compound beneath Al-Shifa Hospital, which the Israeli military raided this week despite the presence of civilian patients and doctors. Israeli officials have claimed that the hospital sits on a major hub of the Hamas tunnel network and that the terrorist group has weapons in the area.
Israel’s strikes on Gaza in response have killed at least 11,000 people, about 40 percent of them children, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas.
Mr. Biden said Israeli forces were allowing doctors and nurses at Al-Shifa to get out of harm’s way, and that “this is a different story than I believe what was occurring before with indiscriminate bombing.”
The official said that Israeli officials say Hamas has at least 100 women and children and should release them all. Israel might be able to pause its strikes for a few days to allow for the release of hostages in batches.
Mr. Biden said he was “mildly hopeful” that some hostages would be released, but added he did not know what had occurred during talks in the last four hours.
The United States is trying to secure the release of the hostages and has been working well with a country that hosts a Hamas office.
