Washington DC, 16/10: President Joe Biden warned Israel in an interview aired Sunday not to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, his first significant public effort to restrain America’s ally in the wake of the Hamas assault that killed more than 1,300 people, including at least 29 American.
Biden has offered staunch support for Israel since the Oct 7 attack and refused to criticize Israel for its retaliatory siege of Gaza, the coastal enclave controlled by Hamas, even as UN officials have warned of a humanitarian crisis there. But in the new interview, he cautioned against a full-scale occupation. “I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden told 60 Minutes on CBS in a conversation taped Thursday and aired Sunday night