While the president has stood strongly behind Israel since Hamas attacked, he said on “60 Minutes” that a new occupation of Gaza would “be a big mistake.”
The “60 Minutes” interview, Mr. Biden did not explicitly say whether Israel should send ground forces into Gaza temporarily. But he endorsed the goal of destroying Hamas, an organization whose founding covenant embraces “killing the Jews” and wiping out Israel. The United States and European Union have designated Hamas a terrorist group.
“Israel has to respond,” Mr. Biden said. “They have to go after Hamas. Hamas is a bunch of cowards. They’re hiding behind the civilians. They put their headquarters where civilians are and buildings and the like.” But he said he was convinced that “the Israelis are going to do everything in their power to avoid the killing of innocent civilians.”
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and Hamas won elections the next year. The group seized complete control of the enclave and pushed out more moderate Palestinian leaders like those running the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Over the past 18 years, Hamas and its more radical counterparts have from time to time staged attacks on Israel, prompting several brief wars. Israeli forces, which blockade Gaza, re-entered the territory on the ground in 2009 and 2014 but opted not to stay in both cases
Many military analysts have said that a ground offensive into Gaza and the resulting urban warfare could be extremely dangerous for Israeli forces and Palestinian civilians alike. But after the deadliest attack on Israel in decades, Israeli leaders argue that they cannot simply respond with the usual airstrikes, and they have resolved to crush Hamas once and for all. Israel has mobilized 360,000 reservists and assembled considerable forces near Gaza in preparation for what is widely expected to be an invasion.
Even before any ground offensive, Israeli airstrikes and its decision to cut off food, water and other supplies have created what international aid organizations have called a humanitarian crisis. At least 2,670 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, and an additional 9,600 have been wounded.
Mr. Biden has refused to criticize Israel and said repeatedly that it had a right to defend itself from what he called “sheer evil.” In the “60 Minutes” interview, he expressed concern over the humanitarian situation and said he favored creating a safe corridor for Palestinians to flee the fighting and to allow in supplies. But he did not frame those comments as critical of Israel.
“I’m confident that Israel is going to act under” the “rules of war,” he said. “There’s standards that democratic institutions and countries go by. And so I’m confident that there’s going to be an ability for the innocents in Gaza to be able to have access to medicine and food and water. Nytimes
