President of the United States, Joe Biden, has said Israel must eliminate the Palestinian Hamas militant group.

The US president in an interview on Sunday with CBS news said he believes Israel has to go after Hamas.

He said: “Hamas is a bunch of cowards. They’re hiding behind the civilians. Invading and taking out the extremists is a necessary requirement.”

Asked if Hamas must be completely eliminated he said “Yes I do”.

“But there needs to be a Palestinian authority, there needs to be a path to a Palestinian state,” he added.

When asked if he would support Israel’s occupation of Gaza, Biden said he thinks “it’d be a big mistake” for Israel to do so.

“Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas, and the extreme elements of Hamas, don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again,” he said.

In the Middle East conflict of 1967, Israel captured and occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Before Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, it evacuated its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005.

Israeli officials insist they have no desire to reoccupy the Strip, which is home to some 2.2 million Palestinians.

Speaking in an interview with CNN on Sunday, Michael Herzog, US Israeli ambassador, said his country has “no desire” to reoccupy Gaza.

“And, certainly, we want people to go back to their homes. We’re talking about innocent civilians.

And we are doing everything we can to keep them out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything it can to keep them in harm’s way. That’s the situation we are at,” he added.