KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has slammed United States President Joe Biden for stating that the bombing of a hospital in Gaza was due to a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Calling the statement "ridiculous and absurd", the former prime minister asked why there should be any doubt that the blast at the Al Ahli Arab hospital was from an Israeli airstrike.
This, he said in a posting on social media, was as the "murderous (Israeli) regime" had been attempting to wipe Palestinians and Gaza out of existence since last week.
"In fact, Israel had been after the Palestinians all the time, if not wipe out the Palestinians altogether, for the past 70 years and suddenly now, after launching airstrikes day and night, Palestinians are blamed for the blast on the hospital.
"Biden's narrative is based on feedback from Nethanyahu and (the) Pentagon. Obviously Nethanyahu lies about everything.
"And if Biden wants to use (the) Pentagon to give credence to his narrative, we have not forgotten how (the) Pentagon and other American institutions lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq.
"A more recent lie is about Biden claiming to have seen pictures of Hamas beheading babies. Indeed, the White House had withdrawn the statement, admitting that there was no proof of such a deed.
"The question is how Biden could blatantly lie in the first place and with a straight face. The crux of the matter is that all these atrocities committed by Israel on the Palestinians stems from the American support for Tel Aviv."
Dr Mahathir said if the US government withdrew support for Israel and stopped all military aid to the regime, Israel would not have carried out the "genocide and mass murder" of Palestinians with impunity.
He added that the US government needed to "come clean and tell the truth".
"Israel and its IDF (Israel Defence Forces) are the terrorists. The United States is blatantly supporting terrorists. So what is the United States?