©Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia, March 9, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said in an MSNBC interview on Saturday that Israel’s threatened invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza would be his “red line” to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but then immediately backtracked, saying there is no red line and “I will never leave Israel.”
In a somewhat contradictory exchange with his interviewer, Biden said they “cannot afford the deaths of 30,000 more Palestinians as a result of the persecution” of Hamas militants.
Biden and his aides have urged Netanyahu in strong terms not to launch a major offensive in Rafah until Israel draws up a plan for the mass evacuation of civilians from the last area of Gaza it has not yet invaded with ground forces. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants take refuge in the Rafah area.
“There are other ways to deal with, get to, deal with… the trauma caused by Hamas,” Biden said, referring to the Islamist group’s Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed.
Asked whether an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a red line for him with Netanyahu, Biden said: “It’s a red line but I will never leave Israel. The defense of Israel is still critical. So there is no red line ( in which) I will cut off all weapons so that they do not have the Iron Dome to protect them.”
Biden insisted, however, that Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives that are being lost as a result of the actions he took.”
He reiterated his call for a six-week ceasefire to release hostages and deliver aid, although negotiations appear to have stalled.
Asked whether it is still possible to reach a ceasefire before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10, Biden said: “I think it’s always possible. I never give up.”