Timeline: How US presidents have defended Israel over decades

Joe Biden is not only US president to back Israel amid criticism of military operations and abuses against Palestinians.

As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s continuing bombardment of Gaza mounts, anger with US President Joe Biden’s handling of the situation is growing. On the same day that Israeli air raids killed 10 members of a single family and levelled an 11-storey building housing the media offices of Al Jazeera and The Associated Press, as well as residential apartments, Biden reasserted his unequivocal support for Israel. The White House on Saturday said the US president called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the second time since the crisis began and “reaffirmed his strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza”.