Biden: Hamas must be eliminated — but Israel shouldn’t occupy Gaza

United States President Joe Biden says the Palestinian Hamas militant group must be eliminated.

Speaking on Sunday in an interview with CBS news, Biden said he believes Israel has to go after Hamas.

“Hamas is a bunch of cowards. They’re hiding behind the civilians. Taking out the extremists is a necessary requirement,” he said.

Asked if Hamas must be completely eliminated he said “Yes I do”.

“But there needs to be a Palestinian authority, there needs to be a path to a Palestinian state,” he added.

When asked if he would support Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the US president said he thinks “it’d be a big mistake” for Israel to do so.

“Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas, and the extreme elements of Hamas, don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again,” he said.

Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. It withdrew its settlers and troops from Gaza in 2005, before Hamas’ takeover of the strip in 2007.

Israeli officials insist they have no desire to reoccupy the Strip, which is home to some 2.2 million Palestinians.

Speaking in an interview with CNN on Sunday, Michael Herzog, US Israeli ambassador, said his country has “no desire” to reoccupy Gaza.

“And, certainly, we want people to go back to their homes. We’re talking about innocent civilians,” he said.

“And we are doing everything we can to keep them out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything it can to keep them in harm’s way. That’s the situation we are at.”

On October 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented and coordinated land, air and sea incursion of Israel which reportedly killed 1,300 Israelis.

Hamas kidnapped at least 150 Israelis and took them into Gaza. Afterwards, the group commenced the launching of rockets into Israeli territory.

Israel launched retaliatory air strikes into Gaza that has left more than 2,000 Palestinians dead.