WASHINGTON
— US President Joe Biden sharply escalated his criticism of Israel’s approach
to the war on the Gaza Strip on Thursday, calling military operations there
‘over the top’ and saying that the suffering of innocent people has ‘got to
stop.’
اضافة اعلان
Biden
exhibited growing impatience with the scale and duration of Israel’s response
during a nighttime meeting with reporters at the White House.
“I
am of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the
Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” Biden said in response to questions at the
end of the rowdy session, meant to address a special counsel report on his
handling of classified documents. “I have been pushing really hard, really
hard, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” he added. “There are a lot of
innocent people who are starving. There are a lot of innocent people who are in
trouble and dying. And it has got to stop.”
But
even as he offered a sharp assessment of the latest events in the Middle East,
he made the kind of mistake that his staff had hoped he would avoid, given
questions about his age and memory, by confusing the presidents of Egypt and
Mexico.
“I am of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,”
“I
think that, as you know, initially the president of Mexico, Sissi, did not want
to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in,” he said,
referring to the President of Egypt Abdel
Fattah El-Sissi, not Mexico. “I talked to him. I convinced him to open the
gate. I talked to Bibi to open the gate on the Israeli side.”
“Lead to a sustained pause in the fighting and the actions taking place in the Gaza Strip. Because I think if we can get the delay for that, the initial delay, I think that we would be able to extend that so that we can increase the prospect that this fighting in Gaza changes.”
Biden’s
comments revealed his increasing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, known by his nickname Bibi, making public what has been
clear in private for weeks. Biden has urged the Israeli leader to take greater
care to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, where health authorities in the
strip reported that more than 27,000 people have been killed, and to consider
the creation of a Palestinian state once the war is over.
Biden
has come under enormous pressure from the progressive wing of his own party to
rein in Netanyahu, with protesters now regularly disrupting the president’s
events and calling him names like ‘Genocide Joe.’ At the same time, Netanyahu,
under fire for not preventing October 7, has sought to hold onto his
government’s right-wing coalition by standing up against Biden’s entreaties for
a so-called two-state solution.
Netanyahu
in recent days seemed to rebuff Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s efforts to
broker a deal through intermediaries with Hamas to secure the release of more
than 100 captives in exchange for a lengthy pause in the fighting.
In
the four months since October 7, Biden has increasingly counseled restraint to
Netanyahu. At one point, he complained about Israel's ‘indiscriminate’ bombing,
but overall, he has moderated his views in public, leaving it at times to other
members of his administration to express more critical opinions.
The
president did not intend to address the situation Thursday night and was
leaving the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House after his statement on
the special counsel report when a reporter’s question prompted him to return to
the lectern. He cited his efforts to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza, where
much of the population has been displaced and desperate for basic goods.
Biden
said, “I’ve been working tirelessly in this deal,” because it could “Lead to a
sustained pause in the fighting and the actions taking place in the Gaza Strip.
Because I think if we can get the delay for that, the initial delay, I think
that we would be able to extend that so that we can increase the prospect that
this fighting in Gaza changes.”
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
