Biden believes Israel’s response to Gaza was over the top

The Netanyahu-Binana Israeli War and Israel’s Progress in the Middle East: Israeli-Israeli Relations in the Early 2000s, 2002-2003

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Word that Israel was preparing a possible expansion of its operation came as American officials said they had killed a senior leader of an Iraqi-based militia they blame for recent attacks on American military personnel. The Pentagon said that a strike in Iraq had killed a commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, the militia they say was responsible for a drone attack in Jordan last month that killed three American service members and injured more than 40.

As the war reached four months, Mr Netanyahu said that victory was within reach and that Israel’s objective was far from reach.

He spoke after meeting with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who was on the third day of a Middle East tour aimed at furthering negotiations to stop the war and ease regional tensions, which have risen since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack prompted the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

“Surrender to the ludicrous demands of Hamas — which we’ve just heard — won’t lead to the liberation of the hostages, and it will only invite another massacre,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem.

A day before, Hamas delivered a plan to mediators that included a long-term cease-fire and the release of prisoners in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

After his meeting with the US Secretary of State, the Israeli prime minister unexpectedly decided to speak to reporters on his own, instead of having a joint news conference.

That gulf over a way out of the war was on full display this week, when Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to the Middle East to push for a cease-fire deal.

Those remarks, at a fund-raiser in Washington, also included assessments of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the leader of “the most conservative government in Israel’s history,” showing growing rifts between Israel and its strongest ally.

The president has previously been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, saying in December that the country was engaged in “indiscriminate bombing” as the United States and other allies were pushing for more targeted approaches to limit civilian deaths. He said at the time that the international community was taking a dim view of Israel’s conduct in the war.

He said at a White House news conference that many people were starving, in trouble, and dying as a result. It has to stop.

In remarks that were overshadowed by questions over his memory and his mistakenly referring to the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, instead as the president of Mexico, Mr. Biden appeared to describe Israel’s war in Gaza as disproportionate.

President Biden criticized Israel’s response in the Gaza Strip as “over the top” on Thursday, while defending U.S. efforts to broker a cease-fire and increase the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the territory.