President Joe Biden flatly said on Monday that Israel’s military assault on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack “is not genocide.” “We refuse to do this,” he told Jewish leaders and activists, saying Americans “stand with Israel.”
Biden, speaking at a Jewish Heritage Month celebration in the White House Rose Garden, condemned ICC prosecutor decision Seeking arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials Crimes against humanity, including by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Monday requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders on the same charges.
“Let me be clear, we reject the International Criminal Court’s request for an arrest warrant against the leader of Israel,” Mr. Biden added. a series of condemnations U.S. officials spoke throughout the day about prosecutors’ actions. “Whatever these arrest warrants mean, there is no comparison between Israel and Hamas.”
U.S. officials have said for months that the Biden administration rejects allegations that members of the Israeli military or the country’s political leaders are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Gaza authorities said Israel launched bombings and ground offensives in Gaza in response to a Hamas-led attack on October 7 that killed at least 35,000 people. Israeli officials deny that its forces deliberately target civilians, saying Hamas deliberately hides its forces among non-combatants. They also deny that Israel limits aid to Gaza to starve people.
Just hours before Biden’s comments, White House national security spokesman John Kirby denied the implications of the ICC move.
“IDF soldiers don’t wake up in the morning, put their boots on the ground and get direct orders to kill innocent civilians in Gaza,” Mr. Kirby said, using the abbreviation for Israel Defense Forces.
But Biden has rarely been as outspoken as he was on Monday, in part because the ICC chief prosecutor asked the court to approve arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Yahya Sinwar . Hamas’s leader in Gaza; Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military leader; and Ismail Haniyeh, the movement’s political leader in Qatar.
Prosecutor Karim Khan did not directly raise accusations of genocide in his request for the arrest warrant, but some aid groups and activists, including many college students during weeks of protests on campuses across the United States, have raised concerns about Israel. There have been accusations of genocide, and some of these protests have turned violent.
Biden and his aides have repeatedly said they consider the deaths in Gaza a tragedy and said Israeli forces need to be more precise in their operations as they wage war against Hamas to avoid civilian deaths.
In his speech Monday night, Biden said his administration was “providing critical humanitarian assistance to help innocent Palestinian civilians who have suffered tremendously as a result of the war waged by Hamas.” It’s heartbreaking. “
Biden’s comments came as he vowed to do everything in his power to help Hamas free the hostages still in Gaza. Rachel Goldberg and Jon Paulin, the American parents of one of the hostages, Hersh Goldberg, were also in the audience.
“I promise you both, I mean it — and I know you know, Mom, I mean it — and I won’t rest until we bring your loved ones home,” Mr. Biden said. “We have to bring him home.”
