War will drag on, warns Biden as he raises hopes on hostages

PRESIDENT Joe Biden said today that Israel’s war in Gaza would probably drag on until Hamas’s “capacity to murder” is degraded.

- Jitendra Joshi

But he also said he was “mildly hopeful” over Qatari-led talks to free some of the 240 hostages seized by the terror group, as Israel came under the strongest pressure yet at the UN Security Council over the devastating toll its war was inflicting on Palestinians.

After Israeli forces controversially entered Gaza’s largest hospital, displaying weapons as proof that Hamas fighters had been sheltering underneath, Israeli president Isaac Herzog said a “very strong force” might need to remain in the coastal strip to prevent the group from rebuilding.

He told the Financial Times that “no one will want to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again”. But Mr Biden, speaking after rare talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping, warned that occupying Gaza would be “a big mistake”.

And he said of the conflict as a whole: “I think it’s going to stop when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder and abuse and just do horrific things to the Israelis.”