Biden says he warned Netanyahu that occupying Gaza would be a mistake
US President Joe Biden said this morning that he was very clear with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the only possible solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is a two-state solution, so it would be a “mistake” to occupy the Gaza Strip after the current attack against Hamas. “I made it clear to Israel that I think it would be a big mistake for them to occupy Gaza,” Biden said after a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Moreover, he strongly defended the Israeli operation against Hamas in Gaza and his position of not demanding a ceasefire from Israel, but only a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, stressing that Hamas poses a threat to Israel. Hamas has publicly announced that it plans to attack Israel again as it did before, by beheading children and burning women and children alive. “So the idea that they will stop and do nothing is not realistic.”
Moreover, although he appeared to criticize the intense Israeli bombing, he expressed his appreciation that the Israeli army was now immersed in a ground incursion in which, he said, it was trying to cause the least number of civilian casualties. “They are entering the tunnels into the hospital, and they brought them incubators and told me that they gave the doctors and nurses the opportunity to evacuate. It is a different story from what I think happened before, the indiscriminate bombing.”
He added that the United States is doing everything in its power to release the hostages still being held by Hamas. After some statements this week in which he stressed that his message to the hostages would be, “Wait, we are on our way,” he clarified that this did not mean sending soldiers.
“I have slight hopes (…)” regarding the release of the hostages, he said. Biden added: “I was deeply involved in advancing the hostage negotiation process. I don’t want to introduce myself because I don’t know what happened in the last four hours,” referring to the time he was meeting with Trump. Shi, EFE reports.
“What I want to say is that I am doing everything I can to get them out. Trying to help them get out. I am not talking about sending soldiers,” he concluded.
The United States, along with Qatar, where some Hamas leaders reside, is negotiating the release of more than two hundred hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 attacks.
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