OCCUPYING GAZA WOULD BE ‘BIG MISTAKE’, BIDEN WARNS ISRAEL

Mon 16 October 2023:

Joe Biden has warned Israel not to occupy Gaza in what may be his strongest public effort to advocate restraint.

He told CBS’ 60 Minutes last night: “I think it’d be a big mistake.

I think it’d be a big mistake. Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that … It would be a mistake to … for Israel to occupy … Gaza again. We … but going in but taking out the extremists the Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down south. Is a necessary requirement.

He said that he believed that Hamas must be eliminated entirely but added, “there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state.”

OCCUPYING GAZA WOULD BE 'BIG MISTAKE', BIDEN WARNS ISRAEL#Israel #Gaza #Palestine #Hamas #GazaCity #IsraelGazaWar #JoeBiden pic.twitter.com/VZM8MtiIMv

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) October 16, 2023

Asked whether he believed that Israel would pursue a two-state solution, which has been US policy for decades, after Hamas’ attack Biden said:

Not now. Not now. Not now, but – but I think Israel understands that a significant portion of Palestinian people do not share the views of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told CNN the country has “no interest” in occupying Gaza but will do “whatever is needed to obliterate” Hamas.

“We have no interest to occupy Gaza or to stay in Gaza, but since we are fighting for our survival and the only way, as the president [Biden] himself defined is to obliterate Hamas, so we will have to do whatever is needed to obliterate their capabilities,” he said.

Israeli forces have launched a sustained military push against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.

The conflict began when Hamas on Oct. 7 initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea, and air.

Hamas said the offensive was in retaliation for the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians.

The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has endured a crippling siege since 2007, as well as ordering over 1 million Gazans in the northern strip to evacuate to the south.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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