Joe Biden under pressure to 'publicly oppose' Israel's Rafah offensive as 'humanitarian catastrophe'

Joe Biden is facing "increased" pressure to oppose Israel's Rafah offensive as a dire "humanitarian catastrophe", an expert has warned.

Israel launched a ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town, a plan that has raised global alarm because of the potential for harm to more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there.

Even as the US, Egypt and Qatar pushed for a cease-fire deal they hope would avert an assault on Rafah, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated on Tuesday that the military would move on the town “with or without a deal” to achieve its goal of destroying the Hamas militant group.

READ MORE: Biden warns Netanyahu against major Rafah attack as divide between leaders grows

“We will enter Rafah because we have no other choice. We will destroy the Hamas battalions there, we will complete all the objectives of the war, including the return of all our hostages,” he said.

Since October, more than 34,600 people have been killed - including 14,500 children - and Biden warned Netanyahu that a major offensive in Rafah will only lead to more death and despair. Both leaders are facing growing public pressure - Biden from protests on university campuses and Netanyahu from the families of some Israeli hostages - for a ceasefire deal.

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Professor Inderjeet Parmar, from the Department of International Politics at City University London, believes there is significant "pressure" on Joe Biden to oppose Israel's offensive. He exclusively told The Mirror: "It’s increasingly clear that Israel has now launched an offensive in Rafah despite what appears to be a serious Hamas acceptance of a ceasefire-for-return-of-hostages agreement.

"This appears to have caught Israel off-guard. Hence, there is increased diplomatic and political and moral pressure on the US and other Israel allies to publicly oppose Israel’s offensive in Rafah as a humanitarian catastrophe. France has declared that it would likely be a war crime should Israel continue on its current path. Turkey and other regional states are also voicing their concerns – Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, for example.

"The high profile student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza and tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, which have spread across the United States and are generating support from university students across Europe and further afield, are further ratcheting up political pressure on the Biden administration to act against Israel.

"With the November presidential election just a few months away, in what looks to be a very tight race, younger as well as Muslim-American voters are becoming more and more significant to the outcome. But despite the above, it is instructive that the Biden administration continues to supply arms to Israel and to issue public statements that indicate US support of Israel’s actions."

According to Mr Parmar, the situation in Gaza remains "tense to say the least" as violence spreads across the wider regions.

He added: "While there is a catastrophe ongoing in Gaza, one that the International Court of Justice has ruled constitutes “plausible genocide”, and there have been wider outbreaks of violence in the region Lebanon, Syria, Iran-Israel, Yemen. The continuation of the deadly Gaza war, and of even relatively constrained regional military conflicts, mean that the situation remains catastrophic on a humanitarian level, and regional relations remain tense to say the least."