Joe Biden calls Israel’s Gaza response ‘over the top’

State Department warns Israel it risks ‘disaster’ if it sends troops into Rafah, where a million Palestinians have sought refuge.

A Palestinian with a little girl surveys the debris inside an apartment destroyed by Israeli bombardment on Rafah on Thursday. Picture: AFP

Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip to the October 7 attacks by Hamas has been “over the top”, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday.

“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” the 81-year-said at the White House.

American support for Israel’s war on the Palestinian militant group has sparked a flurry of attacks on US troops in the region, as well as criticism of the Biden administration at home and abroad. Months of bombardment and siege have deepened a humanitarian crisis, especially in southern Gaza.

Mr Biden said he had pushed to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi initially “did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in”.

“I talked to him, I convinced him to open the gate. I talked to Bibi to open the gate on the Israeli side,” Mr Biden continued, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I’ve been pushing really hard, really hard, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”

Earlier, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel warned Israel that it risked “disaster” if it sent troops into Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge.

Mr Patel said Washington had “yet to see any evidence of serious planning” for a Rafah ground operation.

A wounded Palestinian child receives treatment at Kuwait Hospital after Israeli airstrikes on Rafah on Thursday. Picture: Getty Images

Noting that Rafah was also a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid destined for Gaza, Mr Patel said such an assault was “not something we’d support”.

“To conduct such an operation right now with no planning and little thought ... would be a disaster.”

The warning came after Mr Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah, the last major town in the Gaza Strip that Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed Washington’s concerns to Mr Netanyahu directly during their talks on Wednesday in Jerusalem, Mr Patel said.

This picture taken from Rafah shows smoke rising over buildings in Khan Younis during Israeli bombardment. Picture: AFP

Publicly, the US top diplomat said any “military operation that Israel undertakes needs to put ­civilians first and foremost”.

Mr Blinken left Israel without securing a pause in fighting, wrapping up his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the war started.

Israel’s armed forces stepped up airstrikes on the city on Thursday as fears of ground fighting grew among the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced from other parts of Gaza who are now sheltering in tents and bombed-out buildings.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that a military push into Rafah “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare”.

A child peeks out of a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in Rafah. Picture: AFP

Heavy fighting raged on despite international efforts towards a ceasefire in the bloodiest ever Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Hamas’s unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of about 1200 people, mostly ­civilians.

Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and launched airstrikes and a ground offensive that have killed at least 27,840 people, mostly women and children, ­according to the Gaza health ministry.

Militants also seized around 250 hostages. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died.

The war has sparked a surge in violence across the region by Iran-backed groups operating in solidarity with Hamas, drawing retaliatory attacks from Israel and the US and its allies.

AFP