Biden terms peace between Israel and Palestine pipe dream for now

{O/C} And while touring the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Biden vowed sympathy and financial assistance for the embattled Palestinians.

Despite calling long-elusive peace between the two sides a pious hope, he said he would still work to resurrect the stalled peace negotiations in the hopes of a two-state solution.

{RVO}

{Soundbite}

JOE BIDEN, United States President:

My commitment to that goal of a two-state solution has not changed in all these years.

The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own that's independent, sovereign, viable, and contiguous.

I know that the goal of the two states seems so far away.

The Palestinian people are hurting now. You feel, you can just feel it, your grief and frustration. In the United States, we can feel it too. But we've never give(n) up on the work of peace.

{VO}

The forlornness of Gaza appears to linger on as Israeli rockets yet again pounded and pulverised the Gaza Strip in what the Israeli military termed a hostile retaliation and flare-up in tensions.