U.S. President Joe Biden was asked on Wednesday about the 6,000 Palestinians, including 2,700 children, whom the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says Israel has killed in the past 18 days of war.
“You’ve previously asked Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties,” Laura Barrón-López, White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour said. “Do these numbers say to you that he is ignoring that message?”
“What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden responded. “I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war.”
“I think we should be incredibly careful. I think—well, not ‘we’—the Israelis should be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war against Israel. And it’s against their interest when that doesn’t happen,” Biden added. “But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
The president was speaking at a White House Rose Garden press conference alongside Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations stated that Biden’s comments were “dehumanizing.”
The group, which advised the White House on its recent U.S. National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, claimed that the Israeli government has acknowledged targeting civilians.
