Report: Biden Not Interested in Year of War in Gaza

Facts

• Axios reported on Friday that two unnamed US officials said that, during a phone call between US Pres. Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, the President told Netanyahu that he was not supportive of another year of war, stressing the need to decrease the war's intensity. Netanyahu recently said that the war would last for 'many months.'¹
• The focus of the war, which has gone on for almost four months now, has shifted to Khan Younis in the south of the strip. Earlier this week, Israeli forces began new operations to advance into Khan Younis, reportedly encircling the city and causing another wave of Palestinians to flee. Southern Gaza now houses around 1.5M displaced and homeless Palestinians.²
• For a third day in a row, Israeli protesters, including families of hostages still held in Gaza, tried to block the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, one of two crossings from which the enclave receives humanitarian aid. The protesters say they are demanding no aid for Gaza until the release of all of the hostages.³
• Outside the Middle East, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel must 'take all measures' to limit the death and destruction caused by its military campaign, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and ensure access to humanitarian aid, though it did not call for a ceasefire.⁴
• The decision was welcomed by several Arab states, though Egypt expressed disappointment that the ICJ did not call for an immediate end to the war. In contrast, Netanyahu called the decision “vile' and portrayed it as an attempt to constrain Israel's military operations.⁵
• Gaza's health ministry reports that the conflict has killed over 26K people in the Gaza Strip, the majority of whom were women and children. The war has also created a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the strip. The official Israeli death toll on Oct. 7 stands at around 1.2K people (and there are still over 100 hostages being held in the Gaza Strip).⁶

Sources: ¹Axios, ²Reuters, ³BBC News, ⁴CNN, ⁵The Times of Israel and ⁶Associated Press.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by FOX News. Israel's war against Hamas is surely just, given the atrocities the group committed during its Oct. 7 attack. However, Israel must take into account the innocent civilians in Gaza who are trapped between Israel's military machine and Hamas's terrorist fighters. Humanitarian aid entering the strip must be significantly increased, while heavy fighting, especially the airstrikes, must be reduced. Israel risks pushing Palestinians into Hamas's hands if it doesn't work to ensure the safety of civilians.
• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Jerusalem Post. Though this has been a tragic war, Israel must eliminate Hamas and restore deterrence with Iran and its proxy Hezbollah. Hamas's military capabilities and infrastructure must be eliminated to ensure Israel's security. To eliminate this capacity for terror, Israel has been forced to use blunt tools to route Hamas forces, as they are so deeply dug into Gaza's civil infrastructure. The international community consistently parrots Hamas propaganda, as Israel worked from the start to deliver aid to Gaza and find a solution to end this war.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. Israel continues to demonstrate that its war is not against Hamas but against the Palestinian people as a whole. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and Israel has effectively rendered large swaths of the strip uninhabitable. Israel is killing Palestinians at an unprecedented rate and has transformed Gaza into a bare and diseased wasteland. Though the US, Israel's biggest ally, wants to minimize the war's intensity, it must instead exert more pressure to end the war completely.

Predictions