Biden says Netanyahu could be prolonging Gaza war for political aims

U.S. President Joe Biden said Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu may be stalling on ending the war in Gaza for political reasons, according to an interview with Time magazine released on Tuesday.

The comments in the May 28 interview were made a few days before Biden detailed a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, and as the Israeli prime minister struggles with deep political divisions at home.

Asked whether he thought Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his own political reasons, Biden said: "There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion."

Biden, who has been pushing for an end to the nearly eight-month war, also said it was "uncertain" whether Israeli forces have committed war crimes in Gaza.

He rejected allegations that Israel is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, but said: "I think they've engaged in activity that is inappropriate."

Biden said he warned Israel not to make the same mistake the U.S. did after the September 11, 2001 attacks that led to "endless wars."

"And they're making that mistake," he said.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer, asked about the interview, said it was "outside the diplomatic norms of every right-thinking country" for Biden to make such comments about Netanyahu.

Last month, the International Criminal Court's prosecutor in The Hague requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defense chief, as well as three Hamas leaders, over alleged war crimes.

More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israel's air and ground offensive in Gaza, most of them women and children, the territory's health ministry says.

Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox coalition partners back Biden's proposal

Netanyahu's biggest coalition partner said on Tuesday it would support a prospective deal to free hostages from Hamas captivity even if it entails an overhaul of Israel's Gaza war strategy.

The statement by Shas, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party that holds 11 of parliament's 120 seats, followed similar remarks on Monday by Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of the second such party in the coalition, United Torah Judaism, which has seven seats.

"Our position is that there is nothing greater than the value of life and the commandment to redeem captives, because their lives face a real and present danger," Goldknopf, Israel's housing minister, said in a statement.

Similarly citing a religious obligation, Shas pledged "full support" to the proposal. It encouraged Netanyahu and his war cabinet to "withstand all pressures for the end of returning the hostages".

UN slams Israel over West Bank deaths

The U.N. human rights office called on Tuesday for an end to violence in which it said Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers have killed more than 500 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.

It said in a statement that Israel had used "unnecessary and disproportionate" force in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and condemned what it said was the systematic denial of medical aid.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. statement.

"If this government accomplishes its plans, in the years to come we're going to see the creation of one Jewish supremacist state from the river to the sea"

How Israeli settler outposts in the West Bank are surging amid the Gaza war ⬇️https://t.co/EBrIMog7Wa

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) March 27, 2024

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said its actions in the West Bank were in response to what it described as a drastic increase in attacks.

U.N. human rights monitors studied 80 cases in-depth among 506 documented deaths of Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7.

The cases studied showed "consistent violations of international human rights law on the use of force by the Israeli security forces through unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force and an increase in apparently planned targeted killings," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said.

In the same period, 24 Israelis were killed in clashes or reported attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank, the U.N. statement said.