The president’s warning against retaking the enclave is one of his firmest efforts to put a limit on Israel’s actions.
President Biden said in an interview broadcast Sunday that a new Israeli occupation of Gaza would be “a big mistake,” comments that came as Israel is expected to launch a hard-hitting ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave.
“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said in a response to a question from “60 Minutes” host Scott Pelley. “Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that … it would be a mistake … for Israel to occupy … Gaza again.”
Biden’s warning against reoccupying Gaza amounted to one of his firmest efforts so far to impose a limit on Israel’s actions in retaliation for Hamas attacks that have killed at least 1,400 people. Still, he added, “Going in but taking out the extremists — the Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down south — is a necessary requirement.”
Biden sought to draw a distinction between Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza and launched a bloody attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and ordinary Palestinians who are now facing dire conditions in the densely populated enclave of over 2 million people, more than half of whom are children.
While he said Hamas needs to be eliminated, he added: “There needs to be a Palestinian Authority. There needs to be a path to a Palestinian state.”
Israel captured the Gaza Strip, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 war, but it unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. In June 2007, Hamas took over Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.
Even without a formal occupation, Israel controls most aspects of life in Gaza, and most Palestinians are not able to exit the territory. Israel announced a full siege of Gaza after the attacks, cutting off food, water, fuel and electricity, a tactic that human rights groups have said violate the laws of war.
