US President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv on Oct. 18, 2023. (Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
American President Joe Biden told TIME magazine that he believes it is “uncertain” whether Israeli forces have committed war crimes in Gaza, during an interview published Tuesday.
TIME’s journalists asked Biden directly: “From the intelligence in the evidence you've seen, either currently or in the last months, have Israeli forces committed war crimes in Gaza?”
Biden responded saying: “The answer is it's uncertain and has been investigated by the Israelis themselves. The ICC is something that we don’t, we don't recognize. But one thing is certain, the people in Gaza, the Palestinians have suffered greatly, for lack of food, water, medicine, etc. And a lot of innocent people have been killed.”
The head prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed two weeks ago a request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant, and three Hamas leaders, on the charge of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
During the interview, which served as the basis for an article chronicling Biden’s last 40 months in office, the president, who will run in the November elections, said his “biggest disagreement” with Netanyahu is the need for a two-state solution by which Israel and Palestine would have equal standing as states and neighbors.
TIME Washington Bureau Chief Massimo Calabresi and Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs asked Biden about the popular belief that Netanyahu is prolonging the war on Gaza “for his own political self-preservation.”
“Do you believe that?” they asked. To which Biden responded, “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
Biden recalled how, during his visit to Israel in the aftermath of Oct. 7, he warned Israel not to “make the same mistake we did going after bin Laden.”
“They’re making that same mistake, I think,” he concluded.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, nearing the eight-month mark, has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, the overwhelming majority civilians, while Hamas remains active throughout the enclave, and more than a hundred Israeli hostages are still in captivity. Relentless warfare has displaced most of the Strip’s population and destroyed more than half of its buildings.