In his statements, the president of the USA, Joe Biden, explaining Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip since October, emphasized that “it is not genocide”.
“What is happening is not genocide, we reject” that term, he insisted, apparently referring to the appeal to the International Court of Justice (IC) in The Hague, the UN’s top judicial institution, before which Israel is accused of “genocide”.
The US president spoke during an event for Jewish American Heritage Month at the White House.
Mr Biden has repeatedly faced pro-Palestinian protests on the campaign trail, with participants calling him “Genocide Joe” because of his support for Israel in its war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
At yesterday’s event, he reiterated once once more that American support for Israel, which he described as the victim of an attack, is “unwavering”.
“We stand with Israel” in operations to “neutralize (Hamas Gaza leader Yahya) Shinuar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas. We want Hamas defeated. We are working with Israel to make this happen,” he insisted.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas for the release of mainly elderly, sick and injured hostages held by Palestinian militants have stalled, but the US president said efforts to return them to their homes would continue. “We will bring them back to their homes,” he insisted.
Mr. Biden reiterated his call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip yesterday in his speech at Morehouse College.
The Democrat, 81, also rejected a request by the International Criminal Court to issue international arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallad, as well as two Hamas leaders.
In recent months, Mr. Biden has faced increasing pressure, especially from a section of his Democratic Party supporters, over his handling of the war as the death toll in the Gaza Strip — now nearing 36,000 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in the besieged and devastated enclave—, where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic, with the entire population at risk of starvation, according to the UN.
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas’ military arm launched the deadliest attack in Israel’s history since the establishment of the state of Israel, killing more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally. based on official data. Fighters from Hamas and other Palestinian armed movements also kidnapped 252 people during the attack, of whom 125 are in the Gaza Strip, but 37 of them are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.
Israel’s government has vowed in retaliation to wipe out Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, a movement labeled a terrorist organization by the US and EU.
Source: RES
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