Biden says Israel is losing world support in war with Hamas in stunning rebuke: President turns on Netanyahu, says his government ‘needs change’ in scathing criticism over Gaza bombing

President Joe Biden issued a stunning rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that Israel is losing support around the world and that his conservative government must “change.”

In a surprise move, Biden stepped up pressure on Israel to rein in its bombing campaign in Gaza, delivering his most scathing criticism since the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.

Biden also accused Israel of not wanting a long-term two-state solution that would give the Palestinians their own nation, but said this should happen.

The rift between Washington and Tel Aviv came amid a growing number of civilian casualties in Gaza, as Israeli forces search for Hamas terrorists, and as Biden faces calls from his own party and allies for a ceasefire to come.

Speaking at a behind-closed-doors political fundraiser in Washington DC on Tuesday, Biden said: “They’re starting to lose that support because of indiscriminate bombings that are happening.

“I think he has to change, and with this government in Israel, this government is making it very difficult for him to move. Bibi has to make a difficult decision. This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history.”

Biden said the Israeli government “doesn’t want a two-state solution” but ultimately “can’t say no” to a Palestinian state.

He said: ‘We have an opportunity to unite the region… and they still want to do it. But we have to make sure that Bibi understands that he has to take some steps to strengthen himself… you can’t say ‘no Palestinian state’… That will be the hardest part.”

Biden issued his blunt warning hours after Netanyahu bluntly rejected US plans for the region’s future.

Netanyahu ruled out any subsequent role for the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in Gaza, which Washington is keen to see, creating a rift between the allies.

“There is disagreement about ‘the day after Hamas,’” Netanyahu said in a video statement on social media, “and I hope we will reach an agreement here too.”

“After the great sacrifice of our citizens and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who teach terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” Mr Netanyahu said. ‘Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan.’

Israel has retaliated harshly against Hamas since the terrorist group attacked on October 7. But many countries express concern about the number of Palestinian civilians who will be killed if Israel bombs Gaza.

Nearly 16,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents displaced since the war began.

The damage is also significant. Nearly 40,000 buildings, or about 18% of all pre-conflict structures, have been damaged or destroyed in the Gaza Strip, a UN assessment showed on Tuesday.

With little aid allowed into Gaza, Palestinians face severe food shortages and a lack of water and other basic goods. Some worry that Palestinians will be driven out of the area altogether.

About 1,300 people on the Israeli side have been killed since the war began. Israel says Hamas still has 117 hostages and the remains of 20 people killed in captivity or during the initial attack.

Biden’s comments came after he invited family members of Americans held hostage by Hamas to a meeting at the White House on Wednesday after some turned down an invitation to a menorah lighting ceremony.

It will be Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with them since the Israeli Americans were kidnapped in the attacks in Israel on October 7.

The invitation to the meeting came after several family members asked to attend a Hanukkah reception at the White House on Monday evening but never received invitations, the father of a missing Israeli American told CNN.

“We are not going to stop until every hostage has returned home,” Biden told donors in Washington on Friday, saying America’s commitment to Israel is “unwavering.”

Several family members camped outside the White House in Lafayette Square, where they tried to organize a holiday meal Tuesday on a picnic blanket on the sidewalk outside the residence to highlight the missing places that will be at their tables during the holidays.

It is believed that eight Americans – seven men and one woman – are still being held hostage after being captured since Hamas unleashed its surprise attack on Israel. Four Americans, including a four-year-old girl and three women, were released as part of a US-negotiated ceasefire brokered with the help of Qatar and Egypt.

It is unclear how many families will attend Wednesday’s meeting with the president and some may appear virtually, a White House official told NBC News.

Biden spoke with some family members via Zoom. Other senior administration officials have met in person with some family members, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Family members have expressed frustration over the slow pace at which Israeli Americans are being released. The White House has said that at least 31 Americans were killed by Hamas and other militant groups on October 7.

Government officials have repeatedly said they remain in close contact with their Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian counterparts on the situation after the truce that allowed the release of some hostages was broken.

Sullivan blamed Hamas for the failure of the November 24-December 1 ceasefire because the militants refused to release any more hostages.

‘To this day, Hamas continues to detain large numbers of women, the elderly and civilians. And yet it still says, Hey, how about if everyone just stops. So we believe that Israel has the right to defend itself,” he said at a Wall Street Journal forum.

He said he will discuss with Israeli officials their timetable for the war in Gaza during his upcoming visit to Israel.

“The topic of how they view the timetable of this war will certainly be on the agenda for my meetings,” said Sullivan, who is expected to travel later this week.

Meanwhile, Ruby Chen, whose son Itay is a reservist who has been missing since Hamas’s attack on Israel, told CNN that a number of families were in Washington DC this week and had asked the White House if they wanted to attend the Hanukkah reception, but that they were not invited. .

The reception, which celebrated the fifth night of Hanukkah, was attended by about 800 guests, including Holocaust survivors, lawmakers and several Jewish leaders, according to the White House.

At that event, Biden praised the work his administration has done to secure the release of the remaining hostages and get humanitarian aid to Gaza.

He said he had worked “probably 20 hours” with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials.

“There’s a whole bunch of things going on right now that are really, really difficult,” Biden said. “We have freed more than a hundred hostages and we will not stop until we get them all home.”

But the White House has also said they have no specific news to share.

“We are not yet close to a new agreement on a humanitarian pause and I have no news here today of the return of hostages, either ours or those of many other hostage-holding countries,” spokesman John Kirby said. last week.

“We are still trying to get as much information as possible about the hostages being held. We have, as I said before, some information on some of the hostages because their families are talking to us. And that has been a great source of information and context,” he added.

“We have less information about others, but not for lack of trying.”