President Biden appeared to suggest in a recent interview that Israel should “just call for a ceasefire” in Gaza, which has lasted more than a month, without making the release of hostages by Hamas a condition.
“What I’m asking is for the Israelis to just ask for a ceasefire and allow us full access to all food and medicine coming into the country for the next six to eight weeks,” the 81-year-old president said. . The Univision interview, which was recorded six days ago, aired on Tuesday.
“I’ve talked to everyone from Saudis to Jordanians to Egyptians,” Biden added.
“They’re ready to move. They’re ready to bring this food in. And I don’t think there’s any excuse not to meet the medical and food needs of those people. It should be done now. ”
The president’s call for a ceasefire was not accompanied by any demands for concessions from the terrorist group responsible for last October’s deadly attack on the Jewish state.
A White House official told the Post that Biden is not changing current policy.
“The president reiterated our long-standing position: We are calling for an immediate ceasefire lasting at least six weeks as part of the hostage deal,” the official said.
Biden’s demands are “Immediate ceasefire” He said this in an April 4 telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The translation read out as saying that Biden “asked the prime minister to authorize negotiators to reach a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.”
However, in his interview with Univision, Biden did not explicitly call for the release of the estimated 134 hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including five Americans, in exchange for a ceasefire.
The meeting between Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu took place days after an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip killed seven World Central Kitchen Support workers, including an American.
The president also told Netanyahu that the “overall humanitarian situation” in the Gaza Strip is “unacceptable” and that U.S. policy toward the Israel-Hamas war has changed due to Israel’s actions after a deadly airstrike on an aid convoy. He said he would be guided.
White House officials did not say what the likelihood of a shift in U.S. policy towards Israel would be if there were no change in Israel’s approach in the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue fighting Hamas until the terrorist organization is eliminated and all hostages are released.
“No force in the world can stop us. Many forces are trying to do this, but this enemy, after doing it once, is useless because he will never do it again. It will not exist either. ” the prime minister said Tuesday at the Israel Defense Forces base in Tel Hashomer.
“We are committed to doing this, and each of you here on this base right now will contribute in some way to achieving this goal,” Netanyahu told Israeli Defense Forces recruits.
Biden criticized the prime minister during a roundtable discussion on Univision, claiming that Netanyahu was making “mistakes” in his response to the war.
“I think what he’s doing is wrong,” the president said. “I don’t agree with his approach.”
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began.
The ministry does not distinguish between terrorist deaths and civilian deaths.
