Biden says Israel occupying Gaza would be a ‘big mistake’

Issued on: 16/10/2023 – 05:04

2 min

04:53am: Biden calls killing of Muslim boy ‘horrific act of hate’

President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the deadly stabbing attack against a six-year-old Muslim boy, which police have linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, as a “horrific act of hate.”

“This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe, and who we are,” Biden said in a statement, adding he was praying for the recovery of the boy’s mother, who was also severely wounded in the attack.

02:36am: Biden: Hamas ‘don’t represent all the Palestinian people’

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 October 7, 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 program 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.

Key developments from Sunday, October 15:

300 Palestinians were killed, mostly children and women, while 800 others were injured in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to the health ministry in the coastal enclave.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip climbed to 2,329 Palestinians dead and 9,714 injured on Sunday morning, according to Gaza’s health ministry, making it the deadliest Gaza war for Palestinians to date. 

Medics in Gaza warned Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people run desperately low on fuel and basic supplies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a crisis tour of the Middle East, met Sunday with the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, which has put on hold normalisation with Israel.

The Israeli army said it was striking inside Lebanon on Sunday following anti-tank missile fire towards a border community, in the latest incident of cross-border shelling.

The United States has organised a ship to take Americans out of Israel to Cyprus on Monday, the US embassy said.

Read yesterday’s blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)