Biden vows to help 'rebuild' Gaza, insists on two-state solution

WASHINGTON/GAZA CITY (AFP) — President Joe Biden on Friday pledged to help organize efforts to rebuild Gaza and said creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel is the only answer to the conflict.

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Biden also said he had told the Israelis to stop inter-communal fighting in the flashpoint city of Jerusalem.

However, he stressed there is no shift in my commitment, commitment to the security of Israel and added that until the region unequivocally acknowledges Israel's existence there will be no peace.

The idea of a two-state solution – with a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel and Jerusalem as their shared capital – has been the cornerstone of decades of international diplomacy aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

US policy under Donald Trump was criticized as being blatantly pro-Israel and ignoring the Palestinians.

A Mideast peace plan devised by Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner was billed as providing for a two-state solution. But that blueprint envisioned a Palestinian state with only limited sovereignty and Israel maintaining security over that state.