Netanyahu on collision course with Biden over future of Gaza as tensions erupt

The Israeli prime minister’s public opposition to US foreign policy will not go down well in his own region or in the White House, write Tom Bennett in Jerusalem and Richard Hall in New York

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, centre, speaks to soldiers in the Gaza Strip (Avi Ohayon/GPO/Handout via AP)

It is a sign of the pressure that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is under that he felt the need to force growing tensions with the US over the war in Gaza into the open.

By angrily pushing back against the US over its call for the establishment of a Palestinian state once Israel’s war on Hamas comes to an end – with a two-state solution being Washington’s long-standing foreign policy – Netanyahu risks undermining his staunchest ally. In the wake of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October, in which 1,200 people were killed and another 240 taken hostage, US president Joe Biden came out strongly in support of Israel’s right to defend itself by going into Gaza. Leaders of other countries, including the UK, followed in his path.

But, as the death toll inside Gaza has continued to rise – with almost 25,000 people having died since the start of the conflict, according to health ministry officials in the Hamas-controlled territory – international pressure has grown for a ceasefire, particularly from leaders of the Arab nations, and the Biden administration has called on Netanyahu to rein in his military operation and go after Hamas in a more controlled manner in order to reduce civilian casualties.