FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Biden's interview underscored the dramatic shift in his policy toward Israel since Israel's killings of World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza sparked global outrage.
US President Joe Biden thinks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to Gaza is a big mistake. Biden, in an interview that aired yesterday, urged Israel to move toward a ceasefire.
Biden's statement is one of his strongest criticisms yet of Netanyahu amid rising tensions over the civilian death toll from Israel's war against Hamas and dire conditions inside Gaza.
" I think what he is doing is a mistake. I don't agree with his approach ," Biden told Univision, a US Spanish-language television network, when asked about Netanyahu's handling of the war.
Biden reiterated that the Israeli drone strike last week that killed seven aid workers from a US-based charity in Gaza was horrific.
" What I'm asking is that the Israelis just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next few weeks, full access to all food and medicine going into the country ," Biden said.
The president's criticism of a cease-fire was a reversal from his earlier statements, in which he has said the onus was on Hamas to agree to a cease-fire deal and the release of hostages.
Biden also stepped up pressure on Israel to allow more aid to the devastated Gaza, saying he had spoken with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt and they were prepared to transfer food.
" There is no excuse not to provide for the medical and nutritional needs of those people. It must be done now" , he added.
Israel said 468 aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, up from 419 on Monday, the highest number in six months since the conflict began. However, the UN says it was still far below the minimum to meet humanitarian needs.
Separately, USAID Administrator Samantha Poeer told a US Senate subcommittee on Tuesday: “We are seeing a sea change in aid coming into Gaza, which we hope will be sustained and expanded.
" We have famine-like conditions in Gaza and supermarkets full of food within a few kilometers. We need to go beyond 500 trucks ," Poër said.
Biden's interview underscored the dramatic shift in his policy toward Israel since Israel's killings of World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza sparked global outrage.
Biden has strongly supported Israel since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel, while expressing growing concern about the human cost in Gaza.
But it was only in his tense phone call with Netanyahu last week that he finally warned that the United States would be forced to change policy if Israel did not change its practices in Gaza.
In Thursday's call, Biden said Israel must immediately allow more aid and protect civilians, while urging Netanyahu to "strengthen his negotiators" to quickly reach a ceasefire with Hamas.
Israel responded by agreeing to open new aid stations, while also announcing at the weekend that it was withdrawing troops from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
But relations remain strained, with Netanyahu insisting he has set a date for a major offensive in Rafah on the Egyptian border that Washington strongly opposes.
With the US presidential election due in November, Biden also faces growing opposition to his Gaza policy from Muslim and young voters, with key allies calling on him to reverse course.
Family members of some of the American hostages taken by Hamas during the attacks met with Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House on Tuesday as negotiations for a deal continue.
" We need results. We need our people at home ," Rachel Goldberg, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among those captured, told reporters.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, pushed Hamas to agree to a deal.
"It is in their court. There is no reason not to move forward with this agreement", he said. / Adapted "Pamphlet", taken from "The Guardian" .
Lini një Përgjigje