Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Joe Biden’s comments that Biden’s approach to the Gaza war “hurt Israel more than it helps it,” intensifying a spat between the leaders.
The US president said over the weekend that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives lost as a result of the actions taken” in Gaza, saying that Netanyahu’s stance was detrimental to Israel’s interests. .
Prime Minister Netanyahu fired back Sunday night: Interview with Politico. If Biden means that “I am pursuing private policies that are contrary to the wishes of the majority of Israelis and that this is harming Israel’s interests, then he is wrong on both counts,” Netanyahu said. Told.
Biden has supported Israel during its five-month war with Hamas, but his dissatisfaction with Netanyahu has become increasingly evident, and he voiced criticism in an interview with MSNBC.
Biden said the potential invasion of Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the Gaza Strip, was a “red line” for him, but he had “no intention of ever leaving Israel.” he added.
“There is no red line that cannot be crossed, because the defense of Israel remains important. We will cut off all weapons so that there will be no iron dome to protect Israel.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas militants, whose October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war, has sparked regular protests in Israel. The outbreak has prompted calls for early elections, including another in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.
The war in Gaza began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,160 people, most of them civilians. Israel’s retaliatory military operations have killed at least 31,045 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview that this figure included 13,000 militants.
“How do we know that? Because our military has killed at least 13,000 terrorist fighters,” he said, without elaborating on how that number was derived. .
Hamas has not said how many members have been killed in the fighting.
After five months of war, the United Nations has announced that a quarter of Gaza’s residents are at risk of starvation. The local health ministry said on Saturday that 23 people, including several children, had died from dehydration and malnutrition in the past 10 days.
Efforts by aid agencies to get humanitarian aid to where it is needed most are hampered by a combination of logistical obstacles, a breakdown in security, and long-standing demands imposed by Israel.
The EU-backed plan to open a maritime corridor from Cyprus and aid airlifts by the US, Jordan and others reflect growing frustration among even Israel’s closest allies that aid is not being enough for civilians in Gaza. There is. The number of aid trucks that have entered the territory by land in the past five months is far below the 500 per day that entered before the war.
Israeli authorities have consistently denied allegations that they obstructed the delivery of aid. “Hamas is stealing humanitarian supplies and stockpiling Ramadan equipment and food for terrorist leaders rather than for Gaza’s needy civilians,” said Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari. said Saturday.
Pressure is mounting on Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire before Ramadan begins on Monday. However, no agreement has been reached.
The aid ship carrying 200 tonnes of food was due to sail from Cyprus to Gaza over the weekend, but local media said it was delayed due to “technical problems” and was scheduled to set sail on Monday. Work began Sunday on a floating pier in Gaza where aid could be received, a spokesperson for one of the organizations responsible for the transport said.
In a separate development, a U.S. warship carrying equipment to build a second temporary pier in Gaza was headed to the Mediterranean, Washington officials said. It could take several weeks for the facility to become operational, they added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted in an interview with Politico that the fighting could take another four to eight weeks. It won’t take more than two months, he said, “maybe six weeks, maybe four weeks.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israelis believe that “once Hamas is destroyed, the last thing we should do is educate our children against terrorism and be thrown into Gaza, the Palestinian Authority that pays for terrorism.” “I’m saying that,” he said.
Netanyahu drew worldwide condemnation and defied the United States, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, by rejecting calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has called for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has partial executive authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to “reunite” the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip under PA leadership. He talked about reforming in any way possible.
But Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israelis also “support my position that attempts to impose a Palestinian state should be categorically rejected.”
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
