President Biden has said that Binyamin Netanyahu is making a “mistake” in Gaza, in one of his strongest rebukes yet of the Israeli prime minister.
Washington has maintained its steadfast support for Israel’s right to root out Hamas in Gaza after the October 7 terrorist attacks that killed as many as 1,200 people.
However, the White House’s tone has shifted dramatically in recent weeks, as Biden, 81, and other leading officials have publicly questioned Israel’s approach and what the administration believes is its insufficient regard for the safety of civilians and aid workers.
In an interview recorded a week ago and broadcast last night on Univision, a Hispanic TV network, Biden said there should be an immediate ceasefire and singled out Netanyahu for criticism. “I think what he’s doing is a mistake,” he said. “I don’t agree with his approach.”
Biden is thought to have been especially incensed by the April 1 attack on a convoy of aid staff working for the World Central Kitchen group, in which seven people were killed.
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A subsequent report by the Israel Defence Forces, which took responsibility for the deaths, concluded that “mistaken identification, errors in decision-making and an attack contrary to the standard operating procedures” led to the convoy being targeted. Two senior officers were sacked as a result.
Biden told Univision that the World Central Kitchen strike was “outrageous”. It led to a 30-minute telephone conversation between the leaders last week, during which Biden told Netanyahu to change course and allow more humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
“So 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 the Univision interview.
He also stepped up pressure on Israel to let more aid into Gaza, saying he had spoken to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt and they were “prepared to move this food in”, and added: “There’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now.”
The US is also eager to see progress in negotiations to free hostages taken on October 7 by Hamas. Talks in Cairo, which were attended at the weekend by William Burns, the CIA director, have failed to reach a breakthrough towards pausing the war. On Tuesday night Hamas rejected the latest proposal for a cessation in the fighting.
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Family members of some of the US hostages taken by Hamas during the attacks met Kamala Harris, the vice-president, at the White House on Tuesday as the negotiations continued. “We need results. We need our people home,” Rachel Goldberg, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among those captured, told reporters.
In a separate development, the leading Democrat on the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee said on Tuesday that he would not approve a large arms transfer from the US to Israel until he has more information about how Israel would use the weapons.
“I’m waiting for assurances,” Gregory Meeks told CNN. “I want to make sure that I know the types of weapons and what the weapons would be utilised for.”
