“He has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas, but he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken.”
“He is hurting Israel more than helping Israel by making the rest of the world … it is contrary to what Israel stands for, and I think it’s a big mistake,” Biden said.
He spoke amid growing tensions between Israel and the United States over Israel’s conduct of its military campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza, an operation which it supports in principle, but has otherwise opposed elements of its operation.
The United States has been concerned in particular by the high fatality count, with Hamas asserting that over 31,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war.
Israel has stated that over 11,000 of the fatalities have been combatants.
The US has also argued that Israel has not done enough to contain the humanitarian disaster that accompanied its military campaign, during which it has taken out roads, infrastructure, and the governance system, making it difficult to distribute and in some cases impossible to distribute aid.
Biden was careful to stress to MSNBC that irrespective of his thoughts on Netanyahu, he supported Israel, particularly concerning defensive weapons.
"I am never going to leave Israel,” Biden emphasized.
“The defense of Israel is still critical, so there is no red line where I am going to cut off all weapons so they do not have the Iron Dome to protect them,” Biden said.
Within that framework there are still red lines Israel should not cross, such as a military operation in Rafah, Biden said. He has stressed in the past that the US would only support such an operation if Israel presented a plan to protect the over 1.3 million Palestinians located in the area of that southern city, many of whom fled there to escape Israeli aerial bombings in the northern part of the enclave.
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