How to convert image binary "string" from an API response into an image file

I have built an API endpoint from an external server to prevent CORS issue when using the HubSpot Events HTTP API to make a request.

The Events API will return an image/gif as a response. Here's an example HS Events API request:

https://track.hubspot.com/v1/event?_n=000000001625&_a=62515&email=testingapis@hubspot.com

And here is my created API endpoint built within WP Rest API:

function hs_events_api_call( $data ) {

    if ( empty( $data ) ) {
        return null;
    }

    $token = "my-token";
    $endpoint = 'https://track.hubspot.com/v1/event';
    $hubId = "my-hubid";

    $required['_a'] = $hubId;
    $required['_n'] = $data["eventid"];
    $required['email'] = $data->get_param( 'email' );

    $query_string = build_query_string($required);

    $args = array(
        'method'      => 'GET',
        'headers'     => array(
            'Authorization' => 'Bearer ' . $token,
            'Content-Type' => 'application/json'
        ),
    ); 

    $url = $endpoint.'?'.$query_string;
    
    $request = wp_remote_get( esc_url_raw( $url ), $args )["body"];

    if( empty( $request ) ) {
        return null;
    }

    $response = new WP_REST_Response($request);
    $response->set_status(200);
    $response->header('Content-Type', 'image/gif');

    return $response;
}

The problem with the endpoint I created is that it returns the image binary as a string. Specifically looking like this:

"GIF89a\u0001\u0000\u0001\u0000?\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000!?\u0004\u0001\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000,\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0001\u0000\u0001\u0000@\b\u0004\u0000\u0001\u0004\u0004\u0000;"

How can I convert it so it outputs as an image file, specifically, an "image/gif" type?
Or is possible at all?