Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his policies in the Gaza Strip after US President Joe Biden said the Israeli leader is "hurting Israel more than helping."
"I don't know exactly what the president meant, but if he meant by that, that I'm pursuing private policies against the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel then he's wrong on both counts," Netanyahu said in an interview with Politico and German media outlet Bild.
Biden made his remarks during an interview with MSNBC that aired Saturday, when he said Netanyahu "must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken" in Gaza.
Netanyahu said he intends to move forward with an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite Biden warning that doing so would be a “red line.”
“We'll go there. We're not going to leave. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn't happen again. Never happens again. And to do that, we have to complete the destruction of the Hamas terrorist army,” he said.
Netanyahu said the operation would not last more than two months, but did not provide specifics on the timeline.
The latest on US expectations: The Biden administration is currently not anticipating that Israeli forces will imminently expand their military operations into Rafah, two US officials told CNN on Sunday, as the holy month of Ramadan begins.
As of this weekend, the Biden administration has yet to see any kind of humanitarian or evacuation plan from the Israeli government that seeks to ensure the safety of those civilians in Rafah before launching a military operation there, the two US officials said.
The approach of Ramadan has ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East, given Israel’s repeated warnings that it was preparing a military offensive into the area, where an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are currently sheltering.
CNN's MJ Lee and Alex Marquardt contributed reporting to this post.