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Post by Webster on Oct 25, 2023 15:40:19 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden makes fresh call for two-state solution after Israel-Hamas warJoe Biden on Wednesday spoke out against retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, the Associated Press reports. The US president also said he was redoubling his commitment to working on a two-state solution to end the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict. Biden said that the attacks by “extremist settlers” amounted to “pouring gasoline” on the already burning fires in the Middle East. -- ‘It has to stop. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,’ Biden said at the start of a news conference with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, who was being honored with a state visit to Washington DC.Settler violence against Palestinians has intensified since the Hamas attack, and settlers have killed Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities. Rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing them to evacuate to other areas. Biden again condemned the brutality of the Hamas attack that killed 1,400 Israelis and said that he was convinced that Hamas was driven in part by a desire to undo US-led efforts to normalize Israeli relations with some of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia. Biden also said that after the Israel-Hamas conflict comes to an end, Israelis, Palestinians and their partners must work toward a two-state solution: Israelis and Palestinians equally deserve to live side by side in safety, dignity and peace. When this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next. And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution.
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Post by Webster on Oct 25, 2023 15:46:17 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden further said at the White House earlier that he “did not demand” that Israel delay a ground invasion of Gaza, Agence France-Presse reported. The agency said that Biden told reporters in the Rose Garden: Israel has a right and I would add responsibility to respond to the slaughter of its people.Biden accused Gaza’s rulers Hamas of “hiding behind” Palestinian civilians, as Israel bombards the enclave, but said Israel must follow the “laws of war”. At the joint press conference with visiting Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, he said: Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians. It’s difficult.US media have reported that Biden has pushed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on a ground invasion of Gaza while Hamas still holds hostages, but Biden denied it: What I have indicated to him is that if that’s possible to get these folks out safely, that’s what he should do. It’s their decision. But I did not demand it. I put it out to him, if it’s real, it should be done.
Joe Biden has called into question the civilian death toll in Gaza being reported by the Palestinian authorities there. Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, AFP reported. But the US president cast doubt on the figure being presented from Gaza: ‘I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s a price of waging war. But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using,’ he said at the White House earlier today.
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