Biden Welcomes Gaza Truce, Says Region 'Fundamentally Transformed'

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Biden Welcomes Gaza Truce, Says Region 'Fundamentally Transformed'

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)

President Joe Biden on Sunday welcomed the ceasefire taking hold between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, saying the "region has been fundamentally transformed."

"After so much pain, death and loss of life, today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," the outgoing president said, just hours after the ceasefire took effect.

Biden was speaking during a visit to South Carolina on the last full day of his presidency, with Donald Trump set to succeed him -- and to inherit the complex task of helping shepherd the initial ceasefire to a more lasting peace.

Defending his determined support for Israel against criticism that it could have drawn the US into a wider war, Biden said he had considered that possibility.

"But I concluded abandoning the course I was on would not have led us to the ceasefire we're seeing today. But instead, it would have risked the wider war in the region that so many feared.

"Now the region has been fundamentally transformed."

Expounding on that, Biden said Hamas's top leaders had been killed and its "sponsors in the Middle East have been badly weakened by Israel, backed by the United States. Hezbollah, one of Hamas's biggest backers, was significantly weakened on the battlefield, and its leadership was destroyed."

He said Israel's military campaign was "extremely successful," leading Hamas's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon to abandon it, making way for Lebanon to install a new president and prime minister, "both of whom support a sovereign Lebanon."

In addition, Biden said: "The Assad regime next door in Syria is gone, removing Iran's ready access to Lebanon. Iran is in the weakest position in decades."

The fighting in Gaza has preoccupied Biden's administration since Hamas launched a surprise and bloody intrusion into Israel in October 2023.

In his comments he did not refer to the other main criticism of his administration's support for Israel as many Americans, aghast at the soaring death toll in the war, called during last year's presidential election for him to rein the US ally in.

Biden's aides have said the final terms of the ceasefire largely follow the outlines of the truce he proposed in May.

But President-elect Trump and his advisors say that only his tough talk and the involvement of his own aides alongside the Biden team helped finally quiet the guns in Gaza.

Biden on Sunday acknowledged the importance of the role played by Trump and his aides.

"Now it falls on the next administration to help them implement this deal," he said.

"I was pleased to have our team speak as one voice in the final days. It was both necessary and effective and unprecedented."



Egypt Plans to Offer ‘Comprehensive Proposal’ to Rebuild Gaza While Palestinians Remain in Strip 

Palestinians walk in the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk in the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP)
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Egypt Plans to Offer ‘Comprehensive Proposal’ to Rebuild Gaza While Palestinians Remain in Strip 

Palestinians walk in the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk in the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP)

Egypt said on Tuesday it plans to offer a "comprehensive proposal" to rebuild Gaza while ensuring Palestinians remain on their land, according to a foreign ministry statement.

It said it is looking forward to cooperating with US President Donald Trump to reach comprehensive and just peace in the region.

The statement comes as Trump continues to press for his plan to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle its population to neighboring Egypt and Jordan despite vehement rejection from Arab states.

Egypt rejected any proposal to allocate land to Gaza residents, the state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV reported on Tuesday, citing Egyptian sources.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told state-owned al-Mamlaka TV on Tuesday that there is an Egyptian-led Arab plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing its people.

Trump said earlier on the same day that he believed there would be a parcel of land in Jordan, Egypt and someplace else where Palestinians can be resettled.

Trump has infuriated the Arab world by saying that Palestinians would not be able to return to their homes under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, which has been devastated by an Israeli offensive.

"We're going to take it. We're going to hold it, we're going to cherish it. We're going to get it going eventually, where a lot of jobs are going to be created for the people in the Middle East," Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, saying his plan would "bring peace" to the region.

King Abdullah said later that he reiterated to Trump Jordan’s "steadfast position" against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, as well as in the occupied West Bank that borders his country.