Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected US President Joe Biden’s comment that Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel”.
“If he meant by that that I’m pursuing private policies against the majority, the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he’s wrong on both counts,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Politico.
The comments came one day after Biden said Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken” in Gaza.
Biden, who has backed Israel during the five-month-old war with Hamas but whose frustration with Netanyahu is growing increasingly visible, aired his criticism in an interview with MSNBC.
Netanyahu’s failure to bring home hostages still held by Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war, has led to regular protests in Israel and calls for early elections, including in Tel Aviv again on Saturday night.
Netanyahu told Politico that his policies were “supported by the overwhelming majority of the Israelis”, who back “the action that we’re taking to destroy the remaining terrorist battalions of Hamas.”
