“The conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
For the first time since the start of the war, US President Joe Biden has criticized Israel’s military actions in Gaza suggesting that the response has been “over the top” and adding that he is seeking a “sustained pause in the fighting” to help the civilian population.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Moments after telling journalists "My Memory's fine"
Joe Biden confuses Mexico and Egypt. He's literally a world away.
This is a shameful and potentially dangerous situation. The most terrifying fact is that Kamala Harris could become President. pic.twitter.com/ctsOtXmAAs
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) February 9, 2024
Biden also said that he has been pushing to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, to increase humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians, and to facilitate a prisoner exchange deal between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas.
“I’m pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage ceasefire,” Biden reportedly said. “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s gotta stop.”
President Biden calls Israel's response in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas "over the top," and said he is pushing hard for increased aid and a "sustained pause in the fighting." pic.twitter.com/E98UOoE6UX
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 9, 2024
Sisi, President of Mexico?
The US President also said that he convinced the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to open up the Rafah crossing. In doing so, however, he mixed up the details referring to el-Sisi as the president of Mexico.
“Initially, the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in”, Biden said, adding:
“I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate. I talked to Bibi to open the gate on the Israeli side.”
Since the beginning of Israel’s aggression on Gaza, the United States has offered unconditional support for Tel Aviv, which has come in the form of military, political and financial aid.
Biden has, on more than one occasion, bypassed Congress to approve an emergency arms sale for Israel.
Additionally, the US has vetoed multiple ceasefire proposals presented at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and has voted in favor of Israel at the UN General Assembly during crucial votes calling for a cessation of hostilities.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 27,947 Palestinians have been killed, and 67,459 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 8,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all of the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
