Biden's clean chit to Israel? US president says war in Gaza not genocide

US President Joe Biden, in a stunning reaffirmation of US support for Israel's war in Gaza, said his administration "stand(s) with Israel to take out Sinwar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas".

He was referring to the Palestinian militant group's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, seen as an orchestrator of the October 7 attack on Israel. He also rejected the International Criminal Court's application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, saying what's happening in Gaza is not a genocide.

"We want Hamas defeated, and we are working with Israel to make that happen," Biden said at a White House event marking Jewish American Heritage Month soon after the ICC's move.

"Let me be clear. We reject the ICC's application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. Whatever these warrants may imply, there's no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.

What's happening is not genocide.

On Monday (May 20), the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the October 7 attacks on Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza.

Biden added that Washington is working to boost humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. But without mentioning the killings of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Israel's retaliatory state of war, Biden stressed that the current crisis is Hamas' fault.

Biden's address was delivered at a venue where the American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin's parents Rachel and Jon were in the audience. Acknowledging the two, Biden pledged that the efforts to bring their son home are not ceased.

The Hamas leaders have been accused of extermination as a crime against humanity, murder, and taking hostages as a war crime, according to an official statement.