The US president reiterates his commitment to a political solution as Israeli troops continue their raids on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital.
US President Joe Biden said he had made it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that occupying Gaza would be “a grave mistake” and that the two-state solution was the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I made it clear to the Israelis that it was a grave mistake for them to think that they were going to occupy Gaza and maintain Gaza,” Biden said at a news conference in San Francisco. “I don’t think it works.”
Netanyahu said earlier this month that after the war, Gaza should be “demilitarized, deradicalized and reconstructed” and that Israel should find a “civilian government” to govern the enclave, ruled by Hamas since 2006.
The Israeli leader said there were no plans to “occupy” Gaza, even though many already consider it occupied territory because Israel has full control of its borders, airspace and territory. territorial waters, despite the formal withdrawal of its forces and settlers in 2005.
Speaking as the Israeli military continued its raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, Biden said he had also discussed with Israeli leaders the need to “exercise extreme caution” in its actions at the hospital, under which Israel, according to Israel, was built by the Palestinian armed group Hamas. its military headquarters.
Hospital officials and Hamas, which controls Gaza, deny the claim.
More than 11,300 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began shelling the besieged enclave on October 7 after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 prisoners.
Biden, speaking to the media after a four-hour summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, insisted the only way to end the bloodshed was the “two-state solution,” with Israel and Palestinians living side by side.
While urging caution at al-Shifa, Biden reiterated Israeli claims about the military headquarters and said Hamas was committing war crimes by housing such a facility beneath a hospital.
The raid on the hospital drew condemnation from the United Nations, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank and is a rival of Hamas.
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals can lose their protected status if they are used for military purposes. But civilians must also be given enough time to flee, and any attack must be proportional to the military objective – which requires Israel to show that the hospital is a military target important enough to justify the siege against it.
Biden said Israel entered al-Shifa, with a limited number of armed troops, and that Israel had an obligation to exercise as much caution as possible in pursuing targets.
Israel said it was searching not only for Hamas fighters but also captives, including a three-year-old U.S. citizen, held in Gaza for more than a month.
Netanyahu, who has ruled Israel on and off for 16 years and faces corruption charges, is under intense domestic pressure to account for political and security failures that may have led to the Hamas attack, the worst in the history of the country.
Protesters took to the streets to demand more be done to secure their release.
Biden said he had “a slight hope” that there would be a deal to release them.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself here because I don’t know what happened in the last four hours, but we got great cooperation from the Qataris,” he said when He was asked about the progress made.
Qatar, where Hamas has a political office, led the mediation between the group and Israeli officials.