US President Joe Biden has suggested that Israel’s military response in Gaza has been “over the top” and said he is seeking a “sustained pause in the fighting” to help ailing Palestinian civilians.
“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.
He added that he had been pushing for a deal to normalise Saudi Arabia-Israel relations, increased humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians and a temporary pause in fighting to allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.
“I’m pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage ceasefire,” Biden 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.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
US President Joe Biden has suggested that Israel’s military response in Gaza has been “over the top” and said he is seeking a “sustained pause in the fighting” to help ailing Palestinian civilians.
He added that he had been pushing for a deal to normalise Saudi Arabia-Israel relations, increased humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians and a temporary pause in fighting to allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.
The remarks, some of Biden’s sharpest public criticism to date of the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, come as the Democratic president has come under increasing domestic pressure to press Israel to stop fighting.
In the aftermath of Israel’s initial attacks, Biden was criticised for making remarks describing the death of innocent Palestinians as “the price of waging a war.”
Saudi Arabia has told the US there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognised on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem, and Israeli “aggression” on the Gaza Strip stops, its foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Explaining his response to the crisis, Biden appeared to mix up the details of his diplomatic efforts, calling Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the leader of Mexico.
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