The Bay Area Association of Health Officials expressed full support for the California Department of Public Health's strategy to continue the current "face mask" guidance until June 15, when the state will align with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) updated guidance.
CDC's updated guidance on masks is based on evidence showing that vaccines are extremely effective in protecting vaccinated people from infection, serious illness, and death, as well as preventing them from transmitting COVID-19 to others.
In a statement, San Mateo County said that increased vaccination in the 12 health jurisdictions belonging to the Partnership helps mitigate the spread of new variants that are more likely to infect those who are not vaccinated.
In that regard, she said these actions help protect people who cannot yet be vaccinated, such as children under 12, as well as people who may not fully benefit from the vaccine, such as people with weakened immune systems.
With nearly half of California's population over the age of 16 fully vaccinated and nearly 65 percent having received at least one dose of vaccine, great progress has been made statewide in vaccinating eligible residents against COVID-19.
However, a large number of residents are still partially or completely unvaccinated, and even more are not eligible to be vaccinated.
The county said June will be critical to ensure that more residents can access vaccines and that businesses and other entities can prepare for the implementation of the CDC's updated masking guide.
Because COVID-19 continues to circulate in the country and abroad, the best way for residents to protect themselves is to get vaccinated.
"Because the vaccine supply had previously been so low, many people did not have the opportunity to get vaccinated," said Curtis Chan, MD, deputy county health officer for San Mateo County.
"There is now enough vaccine for everyone - at county-sponsored clinics, health care providers, national chain pharmacies and other community organizations. Let's help more people and communities get vaccinated before June 15," she said.
San Mateo County reminded everyone that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, free, effective and available to everyone 12 years of age and older.
The local health jurisdictions that joined the declaration were Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and the City of Berkeley counties.
California has already experienced a significant increase in the number of wildfires and acres burned compared to this time last year.
The number of forest fires recorded from January 1 to May 18, 2021, total 2,436, while in the same period, but in 2020 were 1,154, which meant an increase of 1,282 incidents -111.09 percent.
In addition, the number of acres devastated has increased disproportionately, as 14,717 acres have been devastated so far this year, compared to 2,617 acres in 2020, an increase of 462.36 percent.
With this increase in fire activity, it is now more critical than ever for all Californians to be prepared for wildfires, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).
California's geography, weather patterns, and the number of Wildland Urban Interface communities make it a state particularly threatened by devastating wildfires.
As catastrophic wildfires continue to increase each year in California, you need to plan, prepare and stay on top of them.
Be prepared: create and maintain a defensible space and protect your home from flying embers.
Prepare your family and household in advance of the possibility of having to evacuate. Make sure you have a plan for what to take and where to go; evacuation plans will be different this year due to COVID-19.
Ask friends or family outside your area if you could stay with them, should the need arise.
If you need to evacuate and plan to stay with friends or family, ask first if they have symptoms of COVID-19 or if there are people in your household at higher risk of severe illness. If so, make other arrangements. Check with hotels, motels and campgrounds to see if they are open.
Also prepare by learning about your community's response plan for each disaster and determine if these plans have been adapted due to COVID-19.
When a wildfire occurs, go early for your safety. Take the necessary evacuation steps to give your family and home the best chance of surviving a wildfire, says CalFire.
Since the program began two months ago, less than 1 percent of San Mateo County's available funding from a state emergency rental assistance program has been delivered.
Of the $47 million available in rental support funds, $19.9 million has been requested and only $314,000 has been distributed according to an update from County Administrator Mike Callagy in mid-May.
The county also expects another $26.7 million for rental support through the American Recovery Plan Act of 2021, the economic stimulus plan passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in March.
Callagy encouraged tenants and landlords to apply.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for them to get out of that overwhelming rental debt that they haven't been able to pay to keep their housing," Callagy said.
In January, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 91, which extended eviction protections through June 30 and established a rental assistance program for tenants and landlords.
Under SB 91, participating homeowners can receive rental assistance to cover 80 percent of unpaid rent from April 2020 through March 2021, once they forgive the remaining 20 percent.
If landlords do not participate, tenants can also apply for assistance to cover at least 25 percent of the rent debt during the same period, the amount that must be paid by June 30 to avoid eviction under state law.
Callagy said the fund may be underutilized because people may not be aware of the program or landlords may not want to forgive 20 percent of their rent, opting to wait for full payment in the future.
"That may be changing. We're anxiously awaiting word from the governor's office to see if that does in fact change to make it more attractive to homeowners," Callagy said. "To me it's a no-brainer."
Barriers to obtaining support
But the application process has not been as accessible and quick as advocates had hoped.
Emily Hislop, special programs manager for Project Sentinel, one of the partner organizations that helps people apply for rental support, said implementation of the program has been clumsy.
"That has nothing to do with the county. It has to do with the state trying to put a system in place very quickly," Hislop said.
The rental assistance program is run by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a national nonprofit organization that the state enlisted to administer the program.
And while San Mateo County has distributed its own COVID-19 rental support and financial assistance in the past, the magnitude of this program led county officials to opt to have the state administer it, as other counties have done. The county remains responsible for conducting outreach and helping people apply for the money.
At several of the nonprofits and organizations that assist with outreach and applications, staff said applicants face language and technology barriers.
Some parts of the application are multilingual, while others are in English only. Some people need help setting up an email address to submit an application or are intimidated by the amount of paperwork required.
"At the end of the day, even if you're tech-savvy or speak English, the process is complicated," said Miriam Yupanqui, executive director of Nuestra Casa, a nonprofit based in East Palo Alto. "Our staff members can take three to four hours to help one family at a time."
Fear of evictions persists
Despite the millions in funding, advocates and tenants are worried about what might happen when the state's moratorium on evictions expires at the end of June.
"Many of them - tenants - are very worried about being evicted and at the end of the day it's about knowledge and information. Many of them don't know that there is legislation in place to protect them from evictions," Yupanqui said. "We're working on a very tight deadline and I'm concerned that we won't be able to help our families in need by June 30."
If tenants can't pay at least 25 percent of the rent due by June 30, eviction could be a possibility. According to the Bay Area Equity Atlas, a regional data center, 14 percent of California tenants were behind on rent at the beginning of the year.
And for those who successfully apply for rental support, it can take several weeks for approvals to come through.
Even if the rental moratorium is extended, the struggle will be far from over for those who have borne the brunt of the pandemic's impact.
Organizers from Faith in Action Bay Area, a network of faith-based organizations that support vulnerable communities, have been on the ground since last year educating tenants about their rights and connecting them to resources.
Adriana Guzman, a lead community organizer with Faith in Action Bay Area, said that despite the state's plan to reopen in June, things won't get back to normal for low-income tenants who have struggled to make ends meet during the pandemic. Many are still having trouble finding work, are working reduced hours or are asking family members for help paying rent.
"They - the tenants - can't handle it anymore. They need to pay the rent, but they also need to pay back the money to their family or friends," Guzman said.
Faith in Action advocates have been pushing local leaders to extend the eviction moratorium and protect tenants. Dozens of advocates and tenants from their organization spoke at a May 4 county Board of Supervisors meeting to urge county leaders to create local protections in case the state does not extend the moratorium.
"People can't wait until the last minute for the state to act," Guzman said. "We really need to see an extension because until people get back to full employment, they won't be able to sustain the payments."
On the San Francisco Peninsula, hiking is becoming more and more common. Aerobic sports are commonly recommended by health experts as the most complete upper and lower body exercises, preventing some cardiovascular diseases.
Hiking - defined as walking along a set route, usually in green or rural spaces and trails - helps reduce tension and stress, reduces the risk of diabetes, lowers cholesterol levels, increases bone density, and strengthens the heart and lungs.
The capacity and development in natural areas of hiking helps to reduce the chances of falling into episodes of depression, in addition to toning the lower body and burn up to 400 calories on average per hour of hiking.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space organization aims to preserve a regional ecosystem of more than 60,000 acres, in addition to managing 26 open space preserves.
The struggle to keep these areas alive dates back to 1960, when environmental protectors detected the economic and commercial growth of the Bay Area, so, northwest of Santa Clara, an organization was created that gradually gained land to safeguard it from being absorbed by corporations or allowing it to exceed the growth of the cities.
Nowadays, these reserves are ideal for hiking; the organization even offers guided tours, so you can start an educational hike, where they explain the history of the place, the natural beauty of the area and even the importance of understanding the earthquakes under this area of the peninsula.
Hiking trails range from Mount Bello Open Space, Stevens Creek to the San Andreas Fault switchbacks. Educational trails also take place at Alpine Pond or Skyline Ridge where, in addition, Native American history is told through audio, narrated by Air Force veterans, an app available for Apple and Android devices.
A perfect place for hiking in San Mateo County is Edgewood Park and Nature Preserve. The park's 467 acres of woodlands and meadows provide wonderful opportunities for long hikes while enjoying incredible scenery.
Wetland, grassland, oak woodland, and chaparral plant communities provide varied habitats for the living creatures found in the park.
Visitors can often encounter deer, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, raccoons and other small animals. The cool, wooded ravines on the eastern slope of the park are rich with ferns and mosses and a thick layer of woody and herbaceous plants.
The central part of the park is dominated by a prominent 800-foot-high ridge that offers exceptional views of Skyline Ridge, Huddart Park, the San Andreas Gulf area, Crystal Springs Lakes, and San Francisco Bay. This ridge generally supports Chaparral on its warm western slope and Oak Woodland on its cooler, less exposed eastern slopes.
Notably, the grasslands and warm summer climate make Edgewood home to several species of snakes and reptiles, including rattlesnakes.
Skunks, yellow jacket wasps and bees are also found there, so the reserve calls to respect the presence of these species and avoid contact with them.
If you're a plant lover, it's also a great place to learn about new species. Ten types of rare or endangered plants have been identified, including the San Mateo Thornmint, which graced the hills of the San Francisco Bay Area before urban development destroyed most of its habitat.
The place is full of majestic trees and colorful plants, and the California Native Plant Society's Flora of Edgewood Park lists the remarkable diversity of plant species found there.
Those with a penchant for entomology won't be disappointed by the area either, as the bay checkerspot butterfly, once an inhabitant of the entire Bay Area and now listed as an endangered species, is found only in this park, in Kirby Canyon in southern Santa Clara County, Coyote Ridge in San Jose and San Bruno Mountain State and County Park in northern San Mateo County.
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) expects to see continued passenger growth during the upcoming summer travel season after it was ranked as one of the air terminals hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the airport has already set a high point for pandemic-era travel, with more than 30,000 passengers processed through SFO's security checkpoints on May 14, 2021.
During the summer travel season, SFO expects to serve 35,000 passengers per day at security checkpoints and more than 38,000 daily during peak periods, San Francisco International Airport said in a statement.
While those levels are more than 50 percent below what the airport was accustomed to before the pandemic, SFO is experiencing the longest sustained period of passenger growth.
"We are excited to welcome more passengers to SFO for the summer travel season," said Airport Director Ivar C. Satero. "With new facilities, amenities and testing clinics, we are offering an airport experience that is safe, healthy and enjoyable."
It should be noted that the SFO still requires all users to wear face masks for air travel.
In that regard, he noted that a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) mandate remains in effect that requires all air, rail and bus travelers over the age of 2 to wear a mask at all times.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also requires all travelers to wear face masks on airplanes and in airports.
There are currently three on-site COVID-19 testing services available to travelers
- Dignity Health-GoHealth Urgent Care, located on the departure level of the International Terminal.
- XpressCheck, located on the arrivals level of Terminal 3.
- Worksite Labs, a vehicle test site located next to the long-term parking lot
On the other hand, the SFO detailed that the next phase of Harvey Milk Terminal 1 will open next May 25.
The new Terminal 1 "Harvey Milk" section includes seven new departure gates, a new post-security connector to the International Terminal, a new museum gallery and a new exhibit content display honoring the life and legacy of activist and politician Harvey Milk.
In turn, the outdoor observation deck "SkyTerrace" will reopen for Memorial Day weekend for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
SkyTerrace will be open to the general public from Friday, May 28 to Monday, May 31, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. No ticket or boarding pass is required to access the area, but visitors will be subject to a security check upon entering the space.
Visitors may bring food and beverages into the area, but smoking is not permitted at any time.
A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer in Redwood City provided a satisfying answer Sunday to other drivers who witnessed two speeding cars on the San Mateo Bridge and may have wondered some version of, "Where's a cop when you need one?"
CHP Officer Maldonado was driving westbound on the bridge when he saw two cars, a Chevrolet Camaro and a BMW 3 Series, racing each other at speeds up to 105 mph -169 km/h-.
Both vehicles were using all lanes, making several lane changes, cutting off vehicles and nearly causing several crashes, according to a Facebook post from the CHP Redwood City office.
Officer Maldonado stopped both vehicles at the end of the bridge and was soon joined by other CHP officers.
Each of the drivers was a male in his 20s, one from San Jose and the other from Morgan Hill, and each had a female passenger of approximately the same age. One of the drivers was unlicensed.
Officers impounded both vehicles for 30 days and cited both drivers. The four occupants of the two cars were given a much slower ride off the road by the officers.
His name was Alireza Fazeli Monfared and he was only 20 years old. He was homosexual and due to the difficulties he faced because of his sexual orientation, he was about to flee his native Iran to Turkey, but he could not do it. On May 4, family members beheaded him after accusing him of dishonoring his family.
Today, May 17, is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. A day to recognize that while the rights of LGBTTTIQ+ people have advanced significantly in recent decades, progress has been slow and uneven in various parts of the world.
According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report issued Nov. 17, 2020, of all hate crimes in the U.S., those based on sexual orientation account for 16.7 percent, the third largest category after race and religion.
The report also shows an increase in hate crimes based on gender identity, they went from 2.2 percent in 2018 to 2.7 percent in 2019.
According to Human Rights Watch, because hate crimes are not required to be reported to the FBI, these alarming statistics probably represent only a fraction of such violence.
The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia was created in 2004 to draw attention to the violence and discrimination suffered by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and all those with diverse sexual orientations, gender and sex identities or expressions.
The date May 17 was chosen specifically to commemorate the World Health Organization's decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.
The Day represents an important annual global milestone to draw the attention of decision-makers, the media, the public, corporations, opinion leaders, local authorities, among others, to the alarming situation faced by people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, and sexual characteristics.
The day is now celebrated in more than 130 countries, including 37 where same-sex acts are illegal.
Many different entities participate in the global mobilization around May 17 and as a consequence it receives many different denominations. Some organizations add Lesbophobia or Intersexphobia as distinct focuses. Acronyms also vary, from the initial IDAHO to IDAHOTB or IDAHOBIT.
In California, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA, the total LGBTQ+ population over the age of 13 is 1,859,000, the percentage of the state's LGBTQ+ workforce is 6.0 percent, the total number of LGBTTTIQ+ workers is 1,194,000, and the percentage of LGBTTTIQ+ adults - age 25 and older - raising children is 24 percent.
California is one of the states that provides full protection to the LGBTTTIQ+ community; that is, discrimination against this community is prohibited in private employment, housing and public establishments. Also, conversion therapies are prohibited in their entirety.
Thirty-one years after the World Health Organization declassified "homosexuality" as a mental disorder, U.S. President Joseph Biden noted that LGBTTTIQ+ Americans still lack basic protections in 25 U.S. states and continue to face discrimination in housing, education and public services.
In that sense, during a statement issued today, May 17, by the White House, as part of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the U.S. president said that his administration will always support the LGBTTTIQ+ community, so it will continue to implement executive orders to promote equality and equity.
He said he will continue to urge Congress to pass the Equality Act, which would uphold fundamental civil rights protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity for all Americans.
Biden said discriminatory policies targeting LGBTTTIQ+ Americans have been reversed, and historic appointments of LGBTTTIQ+ Americans to the highest levels of government have been made.
She noted that an epidemic of violence still continues against the community, with a particular impact on the transgender community, specifically transgender women and girls of color.
He said courageous activists in the U.S. and around the world have stood up for progress and won.
However, he pointed out that despite this progress, both COVID-19 and growing authoritarianism around the world continue to widen economic, social and security gaps for LGBTTTIQ+ people, as some 70 countries still criminalize same-sex relationships.
In this regard, he stressed that in the American union, marriage equality and greater protection against hate crimes are the law of the land, while abroad, governments, civil society and international organizations such as the United Nations finally recognize that LGBTTTIQ+ people deserve the utmost dignity and equality.
"All people are entitled to dignity and equality, no matter who they are, who they love, or how they identify, and we will continue to engage with allies and partners to advance the human rights of LGBTTTIQ+ people here at home and in every corner of the world," Biden said.
I could start writing this review with the following sentence:
On July 16, 1990, Liliana Rivera Garza was a victim of femicide in Mexico City.
And although in that year that feels so distant the term "femicide" did not exist either in Mexican law or in our collective imagination, the phrase would not be incorrect. Because that is what happened to the younger sister, the only sister, of writer and academic Cristina Rivera Garza: an ex-boyfriend, a man of tiny spirit, heart and reason, who did not understand, who did not want to accept that she no longer wanted anything to do with him, broke into her apartment in Azcapotzalco during the early hours of the morning and murdered her with impunity.
Three decades later, with that vocation of archivist and detective that has animated at least two of his previous works (No one will see me cry, 1999, and Autobiography of cottonShe is convinced that the right word to use to describe her sister's murder is "love," and her heart is on fire. femicideno crime of passion -for there is no longer room for euphemisms-, Cristina Rivera Garza undertakes the writing of Liliana's invincible summer (Random House Literature, 2021).
I write that "with the vocation of archivist and detective", because it all began with the opening, reading and organization of Liliana's archives: her notebooks and the rest of the things that for so many years remained hidden, silent, immersed in the dry darkness of boxes labeled with her name.
Opening those boxes, and the animal scream, the shock that such an event produced in Cristina's body, were the first steps to unravel what happened during the last hours that her sister was alive.
In July 1990 Liliana was a 20 year old girl, an architecture student, beautiful, brilliant, passionate about her career, living alone for the first time and tasting the freedom that every human being deserves.
A young woman planning to do postgraduate studies in the UK, she had a bright horizon ahead of her.
As in Autobiography of cotton, Cristina Rivera Garza narrates part of her research in the first person. There it was about tracking down, by car, driving along highways and roads taken over by the narco, what was left of Estación Camarón, the town from which her grandparents were expelled by a strike and the devastation of the cotton harvest, which was their way of life.
Here, the writer recounts the long walks, subway rides and Uber rides through Mexico City, from the Roma neighborhood to Azcapotzalco, in search of the file on her sister's femicide, and later, in the desire to know the apartment where she was murdered. Even if it had already changed, even if the layout of the space was not the same as when Liliana lived there. This part, in Liliana's invincible summer, is the narration of the monster of bureaucracy in the prosecutor's offices, where they send the writer from one office to another because the file is not there; of the tiredness of the feet that walk along avenues looking for Liliana's trail; there where she passed to go to school, the stairs of the subway station that she stepped on so many times, the sidewalks where she walked, the campus of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana -UAM- Azcapotzalco where she studied and shared the time of the breaks with her classmates.
The first line of Liliana's portrait is drawn from the words of her diaries. Cristina says that
Liliana was by far the real writer in the family.
Because the young woman filled her notebooks with transcriptions of poems and songs, but also with her reflections and the narration of her moods, some anecdotes, the most important things of her days.
The first time Liliana wrote Angel Gonzalez Ramos' name was on a Sunday, June 10, 1984.
Angel is the man whose description matches the one given by neighbors to the police with the one who entered the young student's apartment that morning when all the pain in the world took place.
Angel is the individual who exercised against Liliana a continuous violence that she did not know how to name, although towards the end of her days she was already determined to banish from her life, to begin to walk towards another side.
Angel is the guy who managed to escape through the roofs of the neighboring houses when the police came for him, to execute the arrest warrant against him for the murder of Liliana.
Angel is, therefore, the unpunished feminicide.
The second part of Liliana's portrait is constructed from the testimonies of her friends and classmates. They agree on her attractive, determined and generous character, on her talent for architecture, on her leadership. Also, in the dark and insistent presence of a guy who visited her from Toluca, who didn't get involved with her group of friends, who she never wanted to talk about, someone from her past who insisted on continuing in her present. "Sometimes he would pick her up at the university," some say; "he would arrive on his motorcycle and they would leave, skidding, both of them without helmets," others say.
Another trace is the one the writer makes of her sister: through Cristina Rivera Garza's story we get to know the girl Liliana was; her sisterly quarrels, her will to believe in love once she reached adolescence, her unquenchable thirst for freedom.
The next line, almost certainly the most loving, is that of her parents' testimonies. Ilda Garza Bermea and Antonio Rivera Peña are the sketchers. Liliana in the womb ("she came pierced," says the mother), Liliana as a baby ("she sucked the finger of her left hand," writes the father), Liliana as a child, Liliana as a teenager in love with a man who did not convince either of them:
But how he made her suffer in high school. I don't remember when they broke up for the first time, or if it was the first time, but Lili cried a lot.
Ilda, the mother, remembers.
I confronted Angel several times. One of the ones I remember most had to do with the fact that he would come to see her at the house in front of the house. Liliana was already in college and for us it was a luxury to have her in the house. Your mother cooked something special (...) That day I couldn't help it. Through the window I saw that he was there on the sidewalk, on one side of the lawn, with a biker shorts, a dirty T-shirt, all unkempt. I came out immediately and told him that was no way to visit a girlfriend. I told him that when I was young, I wore my best clothes to see Ilda. Shoes shined. Clean hair. I also told her that, if she wanted to continue visiting Liliana at home, she had to show more respect for her...
Antonio, the father, writes.
For the story of the feminicide of her beloved sister, the author resorts to the omniscient narrator who looks at everything with the necessary distance to describe the discovery of the body of the young student by her friend Manolo, the arrival of the police, of Ana, a very close friend, and of the reporter who covered the story for the newspaper. La PrensaTomás Rojas Madrid.
What happened next - how she was told in Houston, where she lived; how she bought the plane ticket by phone; how she flew to Mexico City; how she took care of her sister's funeral because her parents were away in Europe - Cristina Rivera Garza writes as if the words were moving with difficulty through a dense fog, as if on a stage where no one is recognizable. Everything is confusing. The edges are blurred. I don't know who is who. The grieving sister moves like a zombie through the scenarios she will now have to face, oblivious to everything but the pain that overcomes her: "Someone is approaching through the crowd at the airport". "Someone opens the door of an office. "Someone mentions the word money. "Someone says: this is an injustice." "Someone says: I will miss her," she writes.
Undoubtedly, at the origin of this book is the need to name.
For the first time I know I can pronounce your name without falling to my knees (...) The air of your full name: Liliana Rivera Garza.
The author writes.
There is the need to say, with all its letters, that the patriarchy killed Liliana. That what happened to her was a feminicide. That her murderer is free, living with impunity.
But also, and above all, that justice will come for her and for all the women who die every day at the hands of their partners, their parents, their colleagues, their so-called friends, their brothers, their schoolmates.
The need to say it and repeat it: that we are forever angry and that we are going to throw the patriarchy away.
U.S. President Joseph Biden spoke Saturday morning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas separately, calling on both nations to reach a just and lasting resolution to their conflict.
During his call with the Palestinian president, Biden conveyed the U.S. commitment to strengthening the bilateral partnership.
They discussed the current tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank and expressed their shared desire for Jerusalem to be a place of peaceful coexistence for people of all religions and backgrounds.
President Biden updated President Abbas on the U.S. diplomatic engagement on the ongoing conflict and stressed the need for Hamas to stop firing rockets into Israel.
They also expressed their shared concern that innocent civilians, including children, have tragically lost their lives amid the ongoing violence, a White House statement said.
Similarly, Biden expressed support for measures that would allow the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom and economic opportunity they deserve.
In that regard, he highlighted the recent decision by the United States to resume assistance to the Palestinian people, including economic and humanitarian assistance to benefit Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
In his other conversation, with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the president reaffirmed his strong support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.
In this regard, he condemned these indiscriminate attacks on towns and cities throughout Israel, and updated the prime minister on high-level U.S. engagement with regional partners on this issue and discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts.
The President noted that this current period of conflict has tragically claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children. He expressed concern for the safety of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection.
Biden shared his deep concern about inter-communal violence in Israel and welcomed statements by the prime minister and other leaders opposing such acts of hatred and encouraged further action to hold violent extremists accountable and restore calm.
At the time, they spoke of the current tensions in Jerusalem and expressed their shared desire for Jerusalem to be a place of peaceful coexistence for people of all religions and backgrounds.
Finally, the president expressed concern about the violent clashes in the West Bank and expressed support for measures to allow the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom and economic opportunity they deserve and affirmed his support for a two-state solution.
The leaders agreed to continue close consultation between their teams and to stay in touch in the coming days.
