Biden says Netanyahu is ‘hurting Israel more than helping’ it
US president Joe Biden has said that he believes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in his approach to the war against Hamas in Gaza.
In an interview on Saturday, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas, but said of Netanyahu that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.
Biden said of the death toll in Gaza, “it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.”
Biden said a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering, is “a red line” for him, but said he would not cut off weapons like the Iron Dome missile interceptors which protect the Israeli civilian populace from rocket attacks in the region.
“It is a red line,” he said, when asked about Rafah, “but I’m never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 have been injured in Israeli strikes on the enclave since 7 October.
Key events
There are growing fears among diplomats in the US and Europe that Iran’s largely unmonitored nuclear programme and the destabilisation caused by Israel’s war in Gaza are strengthening the hand of Iranian factions that back the development of nuclear weapons.
The Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has reiterated in recent days that his country is pursuing a civilian nuclear programme for now.
However, at a quarterly meeting last week of the governing board of the nuclear inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the US and its European partners issued dire warnings about the threat posed by Iran’s lack of cooperation on its nuclear programme.
The IAEA director, Rafael Grossi, even admitted that that the inspectorate had lost “continuity of knowledge about the production and stock of centrifuges, rotors, heavy water and uranium ore concentrate” in Iran.
You can read the full story by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, here:
Death toll in Gaza reaches 31,045, says health ministry
At least 31,045 Palestinians have been killed and 72,654 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
The X account for the Municipality of Gaza warns that Gaza is facing a “humanitarian crisis” due to “relentless Israeli aggression”, with essential services such as water and sanitation significantly affected.
It called for international aid in supplying fuel for basic services, electricity generators for water wells and heavy machinery for infrastructure repair and waste management.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said the US president, Joe Biden, wants to see a plan to evacuate Palestinians before a major Israeli military offensive in Rafah.
“We evacuated more than a million Palestinians from north to south and now we have to move them west and to other areas before the Rafah operation,” he said in remarks quoted by Israeli public radio.
As Israeli forces have expanded ground operations steadily southwards in the war, Rafah – situated on the border with Egypt, and before the conflict home to about 280,000 people – has become the last refuge for more than half of the strip’s population of 2.3 million.
Biden says Netanyahu is ‘hurting Israel more than helping’ it
US president Joe Biden has said that he believes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in his approach to the war against Hamas in Gaza.
In an interview on Saturday, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas, but said of Netanyahu that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.
Biden said of the death toll in Gaza, “it’s contrary to what Israel stands for. And I think it’s a big mistake.”
Biden said a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering, is “a red line” for him, but said he would not cut off weapons like the Iron Dome missile interceptors which protect the Israeli civilian populace from rocket attacks in the region.
“It is a red line,” he said, when asked about Rafah, “but I’m never going to leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 have been injured in Israeli strikes on the enclave since 7 October.
Opening summary
Welcome to our latest live coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza and wider Middle East crisis.
US president Joe Biden has said that he believes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” in his approach to the war in Gaza.
In an interview on Saturday with MSNBC, the president expressed support for Israel’s right to pursue Hamas, but said of Netanyahu that “he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken”.
Biden has for months warned that Israel risks losing international support over mounting civilian casualties in Gaza. His remarks on Saturday pointed to the increasingly strained relationship between the two leaders.
In other developments:
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A ship laden with humanitarian aid intended for Gaza is preparing to leave Cyprus, amid acute international concern as conditions in the territory continue to deteriorate. A US charity said it was loading aid on to a boat in Cyprus, which will be the first shipment to Gaza along a maritime corridor the European Commission hopes will open by Sunday.
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On Sunday, the US announced that a vessel – the Gen Frank S. Besson – had departed from a Virginia base en route to the eastern Mediterranean to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. In its statement, the US central command said the Besson, a logistics support vessel, departed “less than 36 hours after President Biden announced the US would provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza by sea”, adding that it was “carrying the first equipment to establish a temporary pier to deliver vital humanitarian supplies”.
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Efforts to secure a deal on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas are continuing, according to a statement by Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, on Saturday. The Mossad chief, David Barnea, met on Friday with his US counterpart, CIA director William Burns, to promote a deal to release the hostages, the Mossad said in a statement distributed by Netanyahu’s office. Biden said it was “looking tough” to secure a ceasefire in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
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In a statement on Saturday marking Ramadan, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh vowed the Palestinians would continue to fight Israel “until they regain freedom and independence”.
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Three Palestinian children died of dehydration and malnutrition at the northern al-Shifa hospital overnight, the Gaza health ministry on Saturday said. Its spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said this raised to 23 the number of Palestinians who had died of similar causes in nearly 10 days.
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The Israeli military said it conducted arrests, located weapons and killed more than 30 fighters in Khan Younis, including in the Hamad area, in central Gaza and in the area of Beit Hanoun in the north, according to a statement on Saturday summarising its operations in Gaza over the past day.
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Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that at least 82 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the last day, and the total number of deaths had risen to 30,960.
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In Khan Younis, medics said at least 23 people were killed in military raids on homes and in Israeli shelling of a housing project in the Hamad area of the city. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli fire killed a Palestinian fisher along the beach, medics said.
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Israel struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on early Saturday. The 12-floor building, located about 500 metres from the border with Egypt, was damaged in the strike. Dozens of families were made homeless though no casualties were reported, according to residents. The IDF said it had warned residents of the 12-floor Al-Masry Tower ahead of the strike, and said they all evacuated in time. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that “scores of civilians sustained various injuries”.
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Canada and Sweden confirmed that they will restore funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). According to CBC News, Canada’s international development minister Ahmed Hussen confirmed the move at a press conference on Friday, while the Swedish government announced on Saturday that it would resume suspended payments with a grant of 200m crowns ($20m/£16m).
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Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday that Ankara “firmly backs” the Palestinian militant group Hamas. “No one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organisation,” he said in a speech in Istanbul. “Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.”
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Hundreds of thousands of Pro-Palestinian activists marched through London calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, during a National Day of Action for Palestine on Saturday. The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), made its way from Hyde Park Corner to the US embassy in Nine Elms.
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Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general told Swiss broadcaster RTS that the UN Palestinian refugee agency is at the “risk of death” after Israel alleged some of its staff took part in the 7 October Hamas attack. But, he said he was “cautiously optimistic” that “a number of donors will return” over the next few weeks and after an independent review of UNRWA is due to be published next month.
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Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the cost of rebuilding Gaza could exceed $90bn (£70bn). He made the comment during a speech marking Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Day in Egypt on Saturday.
