Monday Briefing

Rubble in Rafah in southern Gaza yesterday.Credit…Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Biden and Netanyahu clashed over war in Gaza

President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel traded criticisms as a public dispute over Israel’s tactics in Gaza heated up.

Biden said in an interview that Netanyahu “must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost” and that “he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”

Netanyahu replied in a later interview that if Biden thought Netanyahu was going against “the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he’s wrong on both counts.”

The sparring comes as the U.N. and aid agencies warned of looming famine in the besieged enclave of about 2.2 million. Health officials in Gaza reported that at least 25 people, most of them children, had died from malnutrition and dehydration in recent days.

A U.S. Army vessel was en route to Gaza with equipment to build a floating pier that could eventually be used to deliver about two million meals a day to the enclave. But the Pentagon has said the project could take weeks to complete. American officials acknowledged that overland deliveries of aid were more effective, but Israel has greatly limited them.

More from Gaza:

• Yazan Kafarneh, a 10-year-old boy, died last week, after a picture of him lying emaciated in a hospital bed became emblematic of starvation in Gaza.

• Nearly 60,000 pregnant women in the enclave are malnourished, Gazan health authorities said.

• Ramadan began without a cease-fire agreement.