[ad_1]
A ball of fire and smoke rises above buildings during an Israeli strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on 15 October 2023.
- US
President Joe Biden said an Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip would be a “big
mistake”. - Biden
said the militant group Hamas does not represent all Palestinians. - He
ruled out dispatching US troops to help Israel in the conflict but said the US
would “provide them everything they need”.
Any
move by Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip again would be a “big
mistake,” US President Joe Biden said in an interview released on Sunday,
as Israeli troops prepared for a ground invasion.
Israel,
seeking vengeance for an attack by Hamas on 7 October, has declared war on the
militant group, launching a relentless bombing campaign and warning more than a
million people in northern Gaza to move south ahead of the operation.
Asked
by CBS news programme 60 Minutes if he would support any occupation of Gaza by
the American ally, Biden replied: “I think it’d be a big mistake.”
Hamas
“don’t represent all the Palestinian people,” he continued.
But
invading and “taking out the extremists” is a “necessary
requirement,” he added.
The
Hamas attack saw fighters shoot, stab and burn to death more than 1 400 people,
most of them civilians. Israel’s reprisal attacks in the days since have
flattened neighbourhoods and killed at least 2 670 people in Gaza, the majority
ordinary Palestinians.
Israel
has faced grave warnings about the implications of putting boots on the ground
in Gaza, with aid groups warning of a humanitarian disaster, fears of the
conflict escalating, and the challenges of separating militants from civilians
in the impoverished, densely occupied territory.
Israel
first occupied Gaza during the 1967 Six-Day War, and it was only fully returned
to Palestinians in 2005.
A
year later, Israel imposed an air, land and sea blockade on the 140 square mile
(362 square kilometre) strip of land, which is also bordered by Egypt and the
Mediterranean Sea.
In
2007 Israel tightened the blockade after Hamas took control of Gaza from the
secular Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
FOLLOW IT LIVE | DEVELOPING: Israel resumes water supply to southern Gaza, million people displaced
When
asked if Hamas – whom Biden described as “a bunch of cowards” – must
be eliminated entirely, he replied: “Yes I do.”
“But
there needs to be a Palestinian authority. There needs to be a path to a
Palestinian state,” he continued, reiterating the long-standing US call
for a two-state solution.
60
Minutes journalist Scott Pelley also asked Biden if he could foresee US troops
joining the war.
“I
don’t think that’s necessary,” Biden, who pulled US troops out of
Afghanistan and has insisted that none will be sent to aid Ukraine as it holds
off a Russian invasion, replied.
“Israel
has one of the finest fighting forces in the country. I guarantee we’re gonna
provide them everything they need,” he said.
The
United States has already deployed two aircraft carriers to the eastern
Mediterranean in a powerful show of support for Israel.
[ad_2]
Source link