Biden faces growing pressure to quit race as Democrats question fitness

United States President Joe Biden is facing growing pressure from within his party to prove he is physically and mentally fit for office, with a Democratic lawmaker publicly calling on him to end his re-election bid for the first time.

Biden’s candidacy has been under a cloud since a disastrous debate performance against Republican challenger Donald Trump that saw the 81-year-old Democrat stumble over his words and lose his train of thought.

On Tuesday, Lloyd Doggett, a House Representative from Texas, became the first member of his party to publicly call on Biden to quit the race.

“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw,” Doggett said in his statement.

“President Biden should do the same.”

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a House Representative for Washington state, stopped short of calling on Biden to withdraw, but said she believed Thursday’s debate performance would cost him the election in November.

“We all saw what we saw, you can’t undo that, and the truth, I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump. I know that’s difficult, but I think the damage has been done by that debate,” Perez said in an interview with the KATU news channel in Portland, Oregon.

Jared Golden, a House Representative in Maine, also said that he believed that Trump would win and he was “OK with that”.

“Lots of Democrats are panicking about whether President Joe Biden should step down as the party’s nominee,” Golden said in an opinion piece published in The Bangor Daily News.

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“Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Jim Clyburn also added their voices to those scrutinising Biden’s condition, saying it was legitimate to raise concerns about his health following the debate.

“I think it’s a legitimate question to say, is this an episode, or is this a condition? And so, when people ask that question, it’s completely legitimate – of both candidates,” Pelosi said in an interview with MSNBC.

While Democratic insiders have been privately raising concerns about Biden’s fitness with media outlets for days, the series of public comments intensifies pressure on the president to assuage growing doubts about his electability.

The White House said on Tuesday that Biden would hold a series of meetings and appearances to quash concerns about his fitness, including a news conference and his first sit-down television interview since May.

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told a media briefing that Biden was sick with a cold during the debate and had “a bad night”.

“We really, truly want to turn the page on this,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“We really want to be able to get out there and speak directly to the American people.”

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During a fundraising event later on Tuesday, Biden blamed his poor performance on back-to-back trips to France and Italy, although he spent the week leading up to the debate behind closed doors at presidential retreat Camp David.

“I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple of times,” Biden said.

Biden added that he did not listen to his advisers about his travel schedule and joked that he “almost fell asleep on stage” during the debate.

In a CNN poll published after the debate, three-quarters of registered voters said that Democrats would have a better chance at winning the election with someone other than Biden on the ticket.

Voters also favoured Trump over Biden, 49 percent to 43 percent.

Vice President Kamala Harris did moderately better, gaining the support of 45 percent of voters compared to Trump’s 47 percent.

Israel strikes southern Gaza after ordering evacuations

GAZA STRIP: Israel carried out fresh strikes in southern Gaza on Tuesday, forcing hundreds of Palestinians to flee after the army once again ordered the evacuation of certain densely populated areas.

Witnesses reported multiple strikes in and around the city of Khan Yunis, where eight people were killed and more than 30 were wounded, according to a medical source and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The bombardment came after a rare rocket barrage claimed by the militant group Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas.

The rockets were aimed at Israeli communities near the Gaza border and were fired in retaliation for Israeli “crimes… against our Palestinian people,” said the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli military said about “20 projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Khan Yunis,” most of which were intercepted. It reported no casualties and said artillery was “striking the sources of the fire.”

This was followed on Monday by an order to evacuate Al-Qarara, Bani Suhaila and other towns in Rafah and Khan Yunis, nearly two months after an initial order to evacuate Rafah ahead of a ground offensive.

Prior to Israel’s ground incursion in Rafah, well over one million people had been displaced to Gaza’s southernmost city.

“Fear and extreme anxiety have gripped people after the evacuation order,” said Bani Suhaila resident Ahmad Najjar. “There is a large displacement of residents.”

Other parts of the Gaza Strip were reeling from continued fighting nearly nine months into the devastating conflict.

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Witnesses and the civil defense agency reported Israeli air strikes in the southern Rafah area and in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.

And in Gaza City’s Shujaiya district, where battles raged for a fifth day on Monday, witnesses reported heavy Israeli tank fire.

An AFP correspondent reported Israeli helicopters firing on houses in Shujaiya, while Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it was continuing to fight in Shujaiya and Rafah.

The Israeli military said troops “eliminated numerous terrorists” in raids in Shujaiya, where air strikes also killed “approximately 20” militants.

The military also announced the death of a soldier in southern Gaza, bringing its total toll during the ground offensive to 317.

Netanyahu, who recently declared that the “intense phase” of the war was winding down, said on Sunday troops were “operating in Rafah, Shujaiya, everywhere in the Gaza Strip.”

“This is a difficult fight that is being waged above ground… and below ground” in tunnels.

The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza including 42 the army says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,900 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Months of on-and-off talks toward a truce and hostage release deal have made little progress, with Hamas saying Saturday there was “nothing new” in a revised plan presented by US mediators.

Israeli authorities released Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, along with dozens of other detainees returned Monday to Gaza for treatment, sparking anger from Netanyahu.

Successive Israeli raids have reduced large parts of Al-Shifa, the territory’s largest medical complex, to rubble.

Israel has accused Hamas of using Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza as a cover for military operations, claims the militants have rejected.

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Speaking after his release, Abu Salmiya said he had suffered “severe torture” during his detention since November.

“Detainees were subjected to physical and psychological humiliation” and “several inmates died in interrogation centers and were deprived of food and medicine,” he said.

Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had decided on the release alongside the Israeli military “to free up places in detention centers.”

The agency said it “opposed the release of terrorists” who had taken part in attacks on Israeli civilians “so it was decided to free several Gaza detainees who represent a lesser danger.”

But Netanyahu said he had ordered the agency to conduct an investigation into the release and provide him with the results by Tuesday.

“The release of the director of Shifa Hospital is a serious mistake and a moral failure. The place of this man, under whose responsibility our abductees were murdered and held, is in prison,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

According to Abu Salmiya, no charges were ever brought against him.

The United Nations and relief agencies have voiced alarm over the dire humanitarian crisis and the threat of starvation the war and Israeli siege have brought for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported that during the month of June, Israeli authorities facilitated less than half of 115 planned humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza.

In a displacement camp in Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah, pharmacist Sami Hamid said skin infections were on the rise, particularly among children, “because of the hot weather and lack of clean water.”

“The number of skin infections has increased, especially scabies and chickenpox,” as have hepatitis cases probably linked to untreated sewage flowing right beside tents, said Hamid.

Israel strikes southern Gaza after ordering evacuations

US has ‘undeniable complicity’ in Gaza killings – Ex-American officials

WASHINGTON: A dozen former US government officials who quit over US support for Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday accused President Joe Biden’s administration of “undeniable complicity” in the killing of Palestinians in the enclave.
In a joint statement, the 12 former government officials said the administration was violating US laws through its support for Israel and finding loopholes to continue shipping weapons to its ally.
Both the White House and the State Department had no immediate comment on the statement.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
There has been mounting international criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and of US military and diplomatic support for its ally in a war that has so far killed nearly 38,000 people and created a humanitarian crisis.
The resignations of the 12 US officials reflects some dissent within the government over its support for Israel. Washington has pushed for the protection of civilians in Gaza and has called on Israel to improve aid access.
Among the people who signed the joint statement were former members of the State Department, Education Department, Interior Department, White House and the military.

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KEY QUOTES
“America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza,” the former officials said in the statement.
They urged the US government to use its “necessary and available leverage” to bring the war to an end and to ensure the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel. They also demanded that the US government support Palestinian self-determination and fund an “immediate expansion of humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.

CONTEXT
Nearly 38,000 people have been killed during the war in Gaza, the local health ministry says, with many more feared buried in rubble as nearly the entire enclave has been flattened and most of its 2.3 million population displaced. There is also widespread hunger in Gaza. The war has led to genocide allegations that Israel denies.
Israel’s assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 hostages to the Hamas-governed enclave, according to Israeli tallies.

US has ‘undeniable complicity’ in Gaza killings – Ex-American officials

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