Biden warns Israel that reoccupying Gaza would be a “big mistake.”
United States President Joe Biden has warned Israel that re-occupying the Gaza Strip would be a “big mistake,” even as he defended the Jewish state’s right to invade the Palestinian enclave to attack militants from the Islamist group Hamas eliminate. Biden’s statements, made in an interview broadcast on CBS this Sunday, represent his first public attempt to curb the retaliatory measures Israel has taken against the Gaza Strip since the October 7 Hamas attack.
So far, Biden had reiterated his unwavering support for Israel and avoided criticizing the Jewish state for the blockade of Gaza, which has prevented access to water, food and medicine since the Hamas attack, despite UN warnings about the possibility of a humanitarian one Crisis. However, in the interview the president expressed his reluctance to undertake a comprehensive occupation of the Gaza Strip. “What happened in Gaza, in my opinion, is that Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas do not represent the entire Palestinian people. And I think it would be a mistake for Israel to reoccupy Gaza,” he said. However, Biden considered it necessary to “eliminate the extremists” hiding among the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
Biden also said he was “confident” that Israel would act in accordance with international law, despite strong criticism of the Israeli army’s bombing of the Gaza Strip. The American president also assured that there was no need for his troops to intervene in the war, since Israel has “one of the best armed forces,” but at the same time the United States could “participate” in the war in Israel and Ukraine at the same time, its “international defense “, according to statements collected by Portal.