Biden warns that Israel's Gaza occupation could be a potential 'Big Mistake'

Any move by Israel to occupy Gaza would be a “big mistake,” US president Joe Biden has said, amid hopes that the enclave’s border with Egypt would open to allow aid in, as Israeli troops continued to prepare for a ground invasion.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, Biden said he believes the Hamas militant group must be eliminated but there should be a path to a Palestinian state.

Israel unleashed a bombing campaign on Gaza after killed more than 1,300 Israelis – mostly civilians – and took 155 hostages in an unprecedented attack. Israel’s reprisal attacks in the days since have flattened neighbourhoods and killed at least 2,670 people in Gaza, the majority ordinary Palestinians.

Asked if he would support any occupation of Gaza, Biden replied: “I think it’d be a big mistake.” Hamas “don’t represent all the Palestinian people,” he continued.

The US has been trying to broker a deal to reopen Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza to allow Americans and other foreigners to leave and humanitarian aid amassed on the Egyptian side of the border to be brought in. On Sunday, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the crossing would reopen.

“Egypt has put in place a lot of material support for people in Gaza, and Rafah will be reopened,” Blinken told reporters in Cairo after what he said was a “very good conversation” with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The US told its citizens in Gaza on Saturday they should move closer to the crossing in case it opened.

Blinken did not give a specific time for the crossing to reopen but NBC News, citing a Palestinian official, reported the crossing would open at 9am on Monday. Citing a security source, ABC News reported the crossing would open for a few hours on Monday, without providing details. The Guardian was not immediately able to confirm either report. 

Israel has faced grave warnings about the implications of putting boots on the ground in Gaza, with aid groups warning of a humanitarian disaster, fears of the conflict escalating, and the challenges of separating militants from civilians in the impoverished, densely occupied territory.

Reserves of fuel at all hospitals across Gaza are expected to last only about 24 more hours, the United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) said early on Monday.

“The shutdown of backup generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at risk,” OCHA said.

Medics in Gaza have warned that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people ran desperately low on fuel and basic supplies. Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave struggled to find food, water and safety ahead of the expected Israeli ground offensive.

Gaza’s sole power plant shut down for lack of fuel after Israel completely sealed off the 40km long territory after the Hamas attack.

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of pediatrics at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, told the Associated Press that the facility has not evacuated despite Israel’s order on Friday for more than 1 million Palestinians – almost half the territory’s population – to move south. There were seven newborns in the ICU hooked up to ventilators, he said, adding that evacuating “would mean death for them and other patients under our care.”

Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the regional director of the World Health Organization, said hospitals were able to move some mobile patients out of the north, but most patients can’t be evacuated.

Blinken said leaders in Arab states he visited across the region in recent days were determined to stop the war from spreading.

“They are using their own influence, their own relationships, to try to make sure that this doesn’t happen,” said Blinken, who was due back in Israel on Monday and is also seeking to secure the release of the hostages, including Americans, that were taken by Hamas back into Gaza.

However the recent outburst of violence has sent regional tensions soaring.

“There is a risk of an escalation of this conflict, the opening of a second front in the north and, of course, Iran’s involvement,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS earlier in the day.

Biden said his message to Iran is to not escalate the conflict.

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said on Sunday that his country had conveyed a message to Israeli officials that “if they do not cease their atrocities in Gaza, Iran cannot simply remain an observer.”

“If the scope of the war expands, significant damages will also be inflicted upon America,” he warned.

Fighting along Israel’s border with Lebanon, which has flared in the last week, intensified Sunday with Hezbollah militants firing rockets and an anti-tank missile, and Israel responding with airstrikes and shelling. The Israeli military also reported shooting at one of its border posts. The fighting killed at least one person on the Israeli side and wounded several on both sides of the border.