WASHINGTON — Like his predecessors before him, President Joe Biden came into office determined to not get dragged back into the Middle East. But as he stares down the final months of his presidency, Biden looks set to hand his successor a regional war on two fronts with no end in sight. 

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted over 200 others from southern Israel in what was the single deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.  

In the 12 months since, Biden and his advisers have tried in vain to secure a diplomatic deal that would bring home the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip and end the fighting there that’s killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians.   

“Far too many civilians have suffered far too much during this year of conflict,” Biden said in his statement marking the anniversary of Oct. 7. “We will not stop working to achieve a cease-fire deal in Gaza that brings the hostages home, allows for a surge in humanitarian aid to ease the suffering on the ground, assures Israel’s security and ends this war.”