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Benjamin Netanyahu: The Israeli prime minister is also increasingly criticized by allies over the humanitarian situation in Gaza

Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / Israel Gpo / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO

Around five months after the start of the Israel-Gaza war, the relationship between Israel and the USA is increasingly deteriorating: After US President Joe Biden criticized Israel's conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip in an unusually harsh manner on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now addressed the allegations rejected in an interview that was published in the Springer media “Bild”, “Welt TV” and “Politico”.

The Israeli head of government has the right to defend Israel and continue to fight the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Biden said in an interview with the US broadcaster MSNBC on Saturday.

However, he must protect the civilian population better.

Biden said of Netanyahu: “He harms Israel more than he helps Israel.”

"If the US President means that I am pursuing a private policy against the wishes of the majority of Israelis and that this harms Israel's interests, then he is wrong on both counts," said Netanyahu.

His policies are supported by an “overwhelming majority” of Israelis.

"You support the measures we are taking to destroy the remaining Hamas battalions."

The USA wants to build a pier for aid supplies

The head of government was referring to a planned ground offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

For him, such an offensive represents a “red line,” Biden explained.

He will not allow another 30,000 Palestinians to die as a result of the action against Hamas.

The US criticizes the project because 1.5 million people are crowded together in a very small space, most of whom have fled from other parts of the Gaza Strip.

These people would have to be brought to safety before an offensive.

The USA recently announced that it would bring relief supplies to the Gaza Strip via a temporary pier.

The number of Palestinians killed in the war rose to more than 31,000 on Sunday, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority.

The information makes no distinction between civilians and armed fighters.

The vast majority of victims are women, minors and older men, the authority emphasizes.

This information cannot be independently verified, but the general magnitude of the number of victims is considered realistic by many international observers.

The US has traditionally been Israel's most important ally.

In the Gaza war, which was triggered by the unprecedented massacre by Hamas and other extremist groups in southern Israel on October 7, Washington provided the Jewish state with large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

Netanyahu's poll numbers have plummeted.

Many Israelis accuse him of not wanting to take responsibility for the security apparatus' failures surrounding the October 7 massacre.

spr/dpa