Joe Biden Weighs in on Conditioning Israel Aid: 'Worthwhile Thought'

President Joe Biden weighed in on Friday about adding conditions to aid for Israel.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7, attacking from the land, air and sea from the Gaza Strip. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza and has since launched a ground operation. The Associated Press reported on Friday that over 13,000 people in Gaza and 1,200 in Israel have been killed so far in the war.

Meanwhile, Biden has stood by Israel amid the conflict, supporting its right to defend itself, while also cautioning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take efforts to limit the number of civilian casualties. The president has requested Congress to allocate more than $14 billion for Israel, in addition to the $3.8 billion Israel receives from the U.S. annually. He has also provided more than $100 million in humanitarian aid in Gaza.

During a press conference on Friday afternoon in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Biden weighed in on whether the United States should add humanitarian conditions to further Israel aid.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, called for aid to be tied to the end of indiscriminate bombings of Gaza, the right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes, no long-term Israeli re-occupation of Gaza, an end to settler violence in the West Bank and a commitment to broad peace talks for a two-state solution.

Biden described calls for conditions on the aid as a "worthwhile thought" when asked whether he supports the idea.

"I think that's a worthwhile thought, but I don't think if I started off with that we'd ever gotten to where we are today. We have to take this a piece at a time," Biden said.

The president's remarks come after Hamas on Friday released 24 hostages, including 13 Israelis, 10 people from Thailand and a Filipino citizen, as part of a four-day ceasefire. Fifty hostages held by Hamas are expected to be released over the coming days, while 150 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be returned to Gaza.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for further comment via email.

Sanders, who has faced backlash from some on the left over his reluctance to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, called for conditioning U.S. aid to Israel in a November 18 statement.

"The U.S. provides $3.8 billion a year in aid to Israel and the Biden administration wants $14.3 billion more. The Netanyahu government, or hopefully a new Israeli government, must understand that not one penny will be coming to Israel from the U.S. unless there is a fundamental change in their military and political positions," he wrote.

Other Democrats, however, disagreed with Sanders' proposal.

Representative Josh Gottheimer, a centrist New Jersey Democrat, warned adding conditions to Israel aid would be "a terrible precedent and will empower America's enemies" in a November 18 statement.

"Conditioning aid to Israel will only have one outcome: it would help Hamas in their goal of completely annihilating Israel and the Jewish people. It would weaken America's national security and our fight against terror. Any legislation that conditions security aid to our key democratic ally, Israel, is a nonstarter and will lose scores of votes," he wrote.

Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, "We do not need any conditions on military aid to Israel."

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in October that the U.S. would not place any conditions on Israel aid, Reuters reported.

"In terms of conditions that we would place on the security assistance that we're providing to Israel, we have not placed any conditions on the provision of this equipment," he said. "This is a professional military, led by professional leadership, and we would hope and expect that they would do the right things in the prosecution of their campaign."