Biden calls for humanitarian ‘pause’ in Israel-Hamas war

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said he thought there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war after a campaign speech was interrupted by a protester calling for a ceasefire.

“I think we need a pause,” Mr Biden said on Wednesday.

The call was a subtle departure for Mr Biden and top White House aides, who throughout the Middle East conflict have said they will not dictate how the Israelis carry out their military operations in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas.

But the president has faced intensifying pressure from human rights groups, fellow world leaders and even liberal members of his own Democratic Party, who say the Israeli bombardment of Gaza is collective punishment and that it is time for a ceasefire.

In his comments, Mr Biden was exerting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give Palestinians at least a brief reprieve from the military operation that has left thousands dead and mired the 141-square-mile strip in a roiling humanitarian crisis.

It comes as Israeli airstrikes hit apartment buildings in a Gaza refugee camp for the second day in a row, Palestinian officials said.

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The territory’s only functioning border post was opened to allow foreign passport holders to leave for the first time since war broke out more than three weeks ago.

Al-Jazeera television, one of the few media outlets still reporting from northern Gaza, aired footage of devastation in the Jabaliya camp near Gaza City and of several wounded people, including children, being taken to a nearby hospital.

The Hamas-run government said the strikes killed and wounded many people but the exact toll is not known.

The White House has refused to call for a ceasefire but has signalled that the Israelis should consider humanitarian pauses to allow civilians to receive aid and for foreign nationals trapped on the strip to leave Gaza.