President Joe Biden expressed his belief that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s strategy for their war against Hamas in Gaza is “hurting Israel more than helping.”
Specifically, the U.S. president said in an MSNBC interview that aired on Saturday that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry has said the death toll since Oct. 7 is more than 30,000, though that does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Tens of thousands more have been injured, while an overwhelming majority of the Gaza population has been internally displaced.
Biden and his administration have urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians for months.
“It’s contrary to what Israel stands for,” he said of the death toll. “And I think it’s a big mistake.”
Israel’s military operation in Gaza began in the northern part of the strip. They urged Palestinians in that area to flee south to avoid the immediate conflict zone, and as Israel cleared the north and moved south, the Palestinians went further south too. Now, there are more than a million people sheltering in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is along Gaza’s border with Egypt, with no place further south to travel to in their own territory.
Biden, among many other international leaders, does not support an Israeli invasion of Rafah. But he affirmed he would not abandon Israel.
“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.”
The president also indicated he was willing to travel to Israel and address the country’s parliament, known as the Knesset, to make his case.
Biden and Netanyahu have repeatedly clashed during the conflict though that hasn’t curtailed Biden’s support for Israel at large. They have strongly disagreed about what should happen in Gaza once the war is over.
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U.S. officials have aggressively pursued a second temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas but to no avail yet. The tentative framework for the deal they’re seeking to get both sides to agree to would halt the fighting for six weeks, which would allow for a surge in humanitarian aid, in exchange for the release of the more than 100 hostages who remain under Hamas’s control.
On Thursday, after Biden gave his annual State of the Union address to Congress, he was caught on a hot mic talking to lawmakers about Netanyahu. He said the two leaders will need to have a “come to Jesus meeting.”
