Biden says Netanyahu's approach to war in Gaza is a 'mistake’

 U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview with Univision that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approach to the war in Gaza is a "mistake."

"I think what he's doing is a mistake. I don't agree with his approach," Biden said on Tuesday in comments to Univision, a U.S. Spanish-language TV network.

Biden called “outrageous” the Israeli airstrike that killed seven staff of the aid group World Central Kitchen.

"What I'm calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country," Biden said in the interview.

In a telephone conversation with Netanyahu days after the April 1 attack on the WCK convoy Biden threatened that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by Washington’s assessment of Israel’s concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians. 

According to Reuters, Israel has received more U.S. foreign aid than any other country since World War Two, although annual assistance has been dwarfed for two years by funding and military equipment sent to Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies, prompting an Israeli invasion that has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. More than 33,200 Palestinians have died, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

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