Biden accused of supporting genocide in Gaza

FE Team | Published: November 05, 2023 21:09:38

WASHINGTON, Nov 05 (Reuters/AP/AFP): US Representative Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress, has accused President Joe Biden of supporting a "genocide" against Palestinians and warned of repercussions in next year's election.
In a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, late on Friday, the Democratic Congresswoman from Michigan repeated her calls for Biden to back a ceasefire in the almost month-long Israel-Hamas conflict.
"Joe Biden supported the genocide of the Palestinian people," Tlaib said in the video clip, which showed images of the dead and wounded from bombings in Gaza, pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the United States, Biden declaring support for Israel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanking the US president.
White House spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her remarks.
After Israel said gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 240 in a surprise attack on Oct 7, the Israeli military launched an air, artillery and ground offensive against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip that Palestinian authorities say has killed more than 9,400.
US and Arab partners disagree
on the need for a cease-fire
The United States and Arab partners disagreed Saturday on the need for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as Israeli military strikes killed civilians at a U.N. shelter and a hospital, and Israel said the besieged enclave's Hamas rulers were "encountering the full force" of its troops.
Large columns of smoke rose as Israel's military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive to crush Hamas. Gaza's Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues. "Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life," Israel's Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said.
Israel minister reprimanded over
Gaza nuclear 'option' comment
An Israeli minister was suspended from government meetings "until further notice" on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, after suggesting in an interview dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza.
Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician part of Netnayahu's ruling coalition, told Israel's Kol Barama radio he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel's retaliation in the Palestinian territory after Hamas fighters carried out a deadly attack on October 7 inside southern Israel.
The attacks killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, Israeli officials say.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza since October 7 has killed 9,488 people, most of them women and children, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
When the interviewer asked whether the Israeli minister advocated dropping "some kind of atomic bomb" on the Gaza Strip "to kill everyone", Eliyahu replied: "That's one option".
More than three quarters of Israelis
believe Netanyahu should resign
Police held back protesters outside the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, amid widespread anger at the failures that led to last month's deadly attack by Hamas gunmen on communities around the Gaza Strip.
Waving blue and white Israeli flags and chanting "Jail now!", a crowd in the hundreds pushed through police barriers around Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem.
The protest, which coincided with a poll showing more than three quarters of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign, underlined the growing public fury at their political and security leaders.
Netanyahu has so far not accepted personal responsibility for the failures that allowed the surprise assault which saw hundreds of Hamas gunmen storm into southern Israel on Oct 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking at least 240 hostage.
As the initial shock has faded, public anger has grown, with many families of the hostages held in Gaza bitterly critical of the government response and calling for their relatives to be brought home.
In Tel Aviv, thousands demonstrated, waving flags and holding photographs of some of the captives in Gaza and posters with slogans like "Release the hostages now at all costs" while crowds chanted, "bring them home now".