US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday that he is in contact with the Israeli authorities regarding the timing of the start of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
In response to a question about whether he encourages the Israelis to postpone the ground attack on Gaza, Biden said that he is “talking to the Israelis about that.”
On Saturday, the White House retracted a statement by the US President, stating that Israel should postpone its expected ground attack in Gaza until more hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian factions are released.
As he boarded Air Force One earlier Saturday, a reporter asked Biden if Israel should postpone the ground operation in Gaza, to which he replied: “Yes.”
But the White House confirmed that the US President “did not hear the question about Israel’s postponement of the ground invasion, and he thought the question was whether he wanted to release more hostages.”
The White House statement continued, saying: “The President was away. He did not hear the question.”
He added: “The question seemed to be, ‘Do you want to see more hostages released?’ He was not commenting on anything else.”
Press reports indicated that there was Western pressure on Israel to postpone its expected ground attack on Gaza, following Hamas’s release of two American hostages from the Strip.
The Times of Israel quoted a diplomatic source as saying, “The United States and many European governments are quietly pressuring Israel to postpone the ground invasion, fearing that it would thwart efforts to release more hostages in the foreseeable future.”
The source explained, “The Western governments that are currently putting pressure on Israel have citizens among the missing.”
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2023-10-21 23:45:28
