“If we don’t, who does?” the president queried.

Biden’s remarks were recorded on Friday. The interview, which aired Sunday night, came as Israeli Defence Forces were readying a ground invasion of Gaza, prompting hundreds of thousands of residents to flee south.

Israel declared war on the Islamist group Hamas a day after waves of its fighters broke through the heavily fortified border on October 7, shooting, stabbing and burning to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Israel then unleashed a relentless bombing campaign of Gaza that has flattened neighbourhoods. Palestinian officials said more than 2,600 people in Gaza have been killed.

Hamas backer Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is also supported by Tehran, have warned that an invasion would be met with a response.

“No one can guarantee the control of the situation and the non-expansion of the conflicts” if Israel sends its soldiers into Gaza, said Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The White House has voiced fears at the prospect of Iran becoming “directly engaged”, after it praised the Hamas attack but insisted it was not involved.

The US, which has given unequivocal backing to Israel, has sent two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also said that the US had conducted backchannel discussions with Iranian leaders to warn them against escalation.

Asked in the 60 Minutes interview whether US troops might join the war, Biden said “I don’t think that’s necessary”.

“Israel has one of the finest fighting forces in the country. I guarantee we’re gonna provide them everything they need,” he said.

Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US has provided almost US$44 billion in support. Israel regularly receives billions of dollars in military support, much of it being spent on missiles.

Biden recently announced he would seek additional funds for Israel from Congress. An application for further support for Ukraine has also been made, but the House of Representatives is currently paralysed as there is no speaker.

Biden and his administration officials have refused to criticise Israel or its bombing campaign that has killed civilians in Gaza. But they’ve urged Israel, Egypt and other nations to allow for humanitarian aid and supplies into the worsening conflict zone.

“I’m confident that Israel is going to act under the rules of war,” Biden said in the interview. “There’s standards that democratic institutions and countries go by. And I’m confident that there’s going to be an ability for the innocents in Gaza to be able to have access to medicine and food and water.”

“The Israelis are going to do everything in their power to avoid the killing of innocent civilians,” Biden said.

He also said he didn’t believe Israel should control the territory long-term, saying instead the territory should be governed by “a Palestinian Authority”.

“I think it’d be a big mistake,” Biden said. “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people.”

But Biden stressed his belief that Israel needed to respond after the initial attack by Hamas on October 7. The US president described the attack as being “as consequential as the Holocaust”.

dpa, Bloomberg and Associated Press