Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s approach to the war in Gaza is a “mistake,” US President Joe Biden said in an interview published on Tuesday, offering further criticism of Israel‘s handling of the conflict, according to Reuters.
“I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach,” Biden said in comments to Univision, a US Spanish-language TV network.
Biden has also previously called Israel’s bombing in Gaza “indiscriminate” and its military actions “over the top.”
The White House said last week that the president, in a call with Netanyahu, threatened to make conditional US support for Israel’s offensive on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians. That call followed an Israeli airstrike that killed seven staff of the aid group World Central Kitchen.
“What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” Biden said in Tuesday’s interview.
International efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas are taking place in Cairo this week, according to AP News.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza has been the subject of mounting international criticism. Domestically, Biden has also faced months of protests from anti-war activists, Muslims and Arab Americans across the country, who have demanded a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and restrictions on US military assistance for Israel.
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza over the past six months have killed at least 33,360 Palestinians and wounded 74,993, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead And that the war has displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million population and led to genocide allegations that Israel denies.
The war began October 7 when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
Israel has received more US foreign aid than any other country since World War Two, although annual assistance has been dwarfed for two years by funding and military equipment sent to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Biden’s remarks in an interview that aired late Tuesday deepen an already growing rift between the two staunch allies over the war, now in its seventh month. Those disagreements have compounded over the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s expected offensive in the city of Rafah and Israel’s recent strike on a humanitarian convoy, which killed seven aid workers, most of them foreigners
The United States has traditionally shielded Israel in the UN Security Council and vetoed three draft resolutions on the war in Gaza. It abstained last month when the Security Council demanded an immediate ceasefire.