US President Joe Biden has said that the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting war against Hamas in Gaza is "hurting Israel more than helping them."
Biden expressed support for Israel's right to pursue Hamas after 7 October, however, he said of Netanyahu that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
For months, Biden expressed concern that Israel may lose backing from other countries due to the growing number of civilian deaths in Gaza. In his most recent interview with MSNCS's Jonathan Capehart, showed that most of his comments indicated that tensions between the two leaders growing.
Biden said of the death toll in Gaza, “it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.”
Biden said a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering, is “a red line” for him, but said he would not cut off weapons like the Iron Dome missile interceptors which protect the Israeli civilian populace from rocket attacks in the region.
“It is a red line,” he said, when asked about Rafah, “but I’m never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
Recently, Biden also spoke on ceasefire talks and said that "hoping" for a deal on a six-week ceasefire by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which will start on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.
Israel remains committed to continuing its invasion and annihilating Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages on Oct. 7. The militant group freed dozens of hostages during a November truce, but it refuses to release more without guarantees of a complete end of hostilities. So far, more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza according to the Hamas-run health ministry, with the majority being women and children, and hundreds of thousands going hungry.
