By AAMER MADHANI and COLLEEN LONG Associated Press
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TEL AVIV, Israel — President Joe Biden swept into wartime Israel for a 7 1/2-hour visit Wednesday that produced a heaping dose of vocal support, a deal to get limited humanitarian aid into Gaza from Egypt, likely by the end of the week, and a plea for Israelis not to allow rage over the deadly Hamas attack to consume them.

“I understand. Many Americans understand,” Biden said as he wrapped up his stay in Tel Aviv, likening the Oct. 7 Hamas assault to the attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people. “You can’t look at what has happened here … and not scream out for justice,” he said.

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“But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it,” he said. “After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”

Biden urged Israel to step back from the brink, not just to ease growing tensions in the Mideast that threaten to spiral into a broader regional conflict, but also to reassure a world rattled by images of carnage and suffering, in Israel and Gaza alike. One million people have been displaced in roughly 10 days, according to the United Nations.

Biden’s mission was to display resolve for Israel and to diminish the likelihood of a wider war, while providing assurances that he was not overlooking the increasingly dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Aboard the flight back to Washington Biden made progress when he spoke by phone with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi who agreed to reopen his country’s sealed border crossing with Gaza and allow up to 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid supplies to cross.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Biden said roads near the crossing would first need hours of repairs, but that aid could begin rolling into the region by Friday. He suggested the aid could be distributed by international officials “which could take a little time” and added that, “if Hamas confiscates it, it’s going to end. We’re not going to send any aid to Hamas.”

“I wanted to make sure that there was a vehicle, a mechanism where this could happen quickly,” Biden said during a refueling stop at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. He added that el-Sissi was “very cooperative.”

“He stepped up. As did Bibi,” the president said, referring to Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. But Biden was also in a mood to celebrate his own accomplishment, saying, “I came to get something done. I got it done.”

“Not many people thought I could get this done,” Biden said. “And not many people wanted me to be associated with failure.”

In fact, the president said officials had a discussion “of an hour or more” on “whether to go” before the trip began. ”Had we gone and this failed, then the United States failed. The Biden presidency failed, etc., which would be a legitimate criticism,” he said.

Aid moving into Gaza will accomplish a key objective for Biden, and the White House announced that the president will address the nation from the Oval Office on Thursday night to “discuss our response to Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel and Russia’s ongoing brutal war against Ukraine.”

Less clear is how far the trip would take the president in trying to tamp down volatile Mideast divisions, particularly after his plan collapsed to follow the Israel stop with an Arab leaders summit in Jordan.