White House says US Prez Joe Biden didn't hear query on Israel delaying ground incursion of Gaza
Washington: US President Joe Biden did not hear a query whether Israel should postpone a likely ground incursion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, when he answered, "yes", the White House said, reported Reuters.
The White House clarified Joe Biden's statement, indicating that the President may not have fully heard the question.
"The president was far away. He didn't hear the full question. The question sounded like 'Would you like to see more hostages released?' He wasn't commenting on anything else," White House spokesperson Ben LaBolt said, the Reuters report said.
This comes after reporters asked Biden about the possibility of Israel delaying a potential ground invasion of Gaza to ensure more hostages could be evacuated.
The question was asked as Biden was boarding Air Force One, amidst the noise of the plane's engines.
Biden briefly paused, said "yes," and then proceeded onto the aircraft.
This came after the release of two U.S. hostages, Judith and Natalie Raanan, who were captured by the Islamist group Hamas during an attack in southern Israel on October 7.
Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel in the early morning of Oct. 7, firing 5,000 rockets in just 20 minutes and infiltrating the southern part of Israeli territory, where it seized a large number of hostages.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
