Biden makes contradictory remarks on ‘red lines’ for Israel in Gaza
Al Jazeera
US president says Israel’s Netanyahu is ‘hurting Israel’ more than helping in his handling of the war.
United States President Joe Biden has warned that there are “red lines” Israel should not cross in its war in Gaza while insisting he would never abandon the US ally.
In a contradictory and confusing exchange aired by MSNBC on Saturday, Biden said that an Israeli invasion of the city of Rafah would be his “red line” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but he would also never “leave Israel”.
“The defence of Israel is still critical, so there’s no red line [where] I’m going to cut off all weapons so they don’t have the Iron Dome to protect them,” Biden said, referring to Israel’s missile defence system.
“But there’s red lines that if he crosses them…”, Biden said without finishing his chain of thought, adding that his administration “cannot have 30,000 more Palestinians dead”.
In some of his most pointed criticism of the Israeli leader yet, Biden also said that Netanyahu was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel” and should “pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost” in Gaza.
