Biden now regrets strength of support for Netanyahu — he must act before it’s too late

Biden must step in personally and draw a line to stop this hugely destructive war spreading beyond Gaza — the nightmare Washington most fears

A boy and a little girl wait to be treated on the floor after being wounded in an Israeli army bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in the hospital in Khan Younis On Tuesday. Picture: AP/Fatima Shbair

Joe Biden has a Benjamin Netanyahu problem — and how he deals with it grows more urgent with each brutal, bloody day that passes. Thousands of Palestinian lives hang on the answer to this question. So, too, do hopes of stopping this hugely destructive war spreading beyond Gaza, and of progress towards a lasting peace.

The Israeli prime minister’s post-truce bombardment and ground invasion of southern Gaza is shaping up to be even more “hellish”, in a UN official’s words, than the indiscriminate mayhem in the north that preceded it.