US gives Israel ‘private backing’ for ground invasion of Gaza
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has won private backing from President Biden to press ahead with a ground invasion of Gaza, according to accounts of closed-door meetings between the two men.
On a visit to Israel, Biden told Netanyahu he remained “fully in support” of Israel’s plans to launch an incursion in order to “eradicate Hamas”, despite continuing outrage at Tuesday night’s explosion at a hospital in Gaza which killed hundreds of civilians.
The hospital explosion led to protests across the Middle East and heightened threats of a broader conflagration should Israel step up its war on Gaza. The US has now backed accounts by the Israel defence forces (IDF), which blamed the blast on a rocket fired by Hamas’s ally in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
