\n<\/p>\n
President Biden sharply escalated his criticism of Israel\u2019s approach to the war against Hamas<\/a> on Thursday, calling military operations in Gaza \u201cover the top\u201d and saying that the suffering of innocent people has \u201cgot to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Biden, who has strongly supported Israel\u2019s right to retaliate for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas that killed an estimated 1,200 people, exhibited growing impatience with the scale and duration of Israel\u2019s response during a nighttime meeting with reporters at the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,\u201d Mr. Biden said in response to questions at the end of the rowdy session<\/a>, meant to address a special counsel report on his handling of classified documents<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve been pushing really hard, really hard, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza,\u201d he added. \u201cThere are a lot of innocent people who are starving. There are a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying. And it\u2019s got to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n But even as he offered a sharp assessment of the latest events in the Middle East, he made the kind of mistake that his staff had hoped he would avoid, given questions about his age and memory, by confusing the presidents of Egypt and Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think that, as you know, initially the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in,\u201d he said, referring to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the president of Egypt, not Mexico. \u201cI talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate. I talked to Bibi to open the gate on the Israeli side.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Biden\u2019s comments revealed his increasing frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, known by his nickname Bibi, making public what has been clear in private for weeks. Mr. Biden has pressed the Israeli leader to take greater care to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, where more than 27,000 people have been killed, according to health authorities in the strip run by Hamas, and to consider creation of a Palestinian state once the war is over.<\/p>\n Mr. Biden has come under enormous pressure from the progressive wing of his own party to rein in Mr. Netanyahu, with protesters now regularly disrupting the president\u2019s events and calling him names like \u201cGenocide Joe.\u201d At the same time, Mr. Netanyahu, under fire for not preventing the Oct. 7 attack, has sought to hold onto his right-wing coalition by standing up against Mr. Biden\u2019s entreaties for a so-called two-state solution.<\/p>\n