Joe Biden calls Netanyahu’s approach to Gaza war a ‘mistake’

Joe Biden further criticized Israel’s handling of the conflict.

Washington:

US President Joe Biden said in an interview published on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the Gaza war was a “mistake” and raised further criticism of Israel’s handling of the conflict.

“I think what he’s doing is wrong. I don’t agree with what he’s doing,” Biden said in comments to the U.S. Spanish-language television network Univision.

Biden also previously called Israel’s bombing of Gaza “indiscriminate” and its military actions “excessive.”

The White House said last week that the president threatened in a call with Netanyahu to provide conditional support for Israel’s offensive and to take specific steps to protect aid workers and civilians. The call came after an Israeli airstrike killed seven staff at aid group World Central Kitchen.

“I’m calling on the Israelis to call for a ceasefire that allows full access to all food and medicine coming into the country for the next six to eight weeks,” Biden said in an interview on Tuesday.

Israel’s military attacks on Gaza have been criticized by the international community. At home, Biden also faces months of protests from anti-war activists, Muslims and Arab Americans across the country who are demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and limits on U.S. military aid to Israel.

According to Israeli statistics, Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 killed 1,200 people. Israel’s subsequent military assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has killed more than 33,000 people, displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people, according to the local health ministry, and triggered accusations of genocide, which Israel denies. Coastal enclaves also suffer from widespread hunger.

Israel has received more U.S. foreign aid than any other country since World War II, although the annual aid it has received since Russia’s 2022 invasion has been dwarfed by the funding and military equipment provided to Ukraine.

The United States has historically protected Israel in the United Nations Security Council and has vetoed three draft resolutions on the Gaza war. Last month, it abstained from the vote when the Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire.