WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Monday, the White House said, their first call in more than a month amid growing tensions over Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
The pair last spoke on February 15, and Biden has been increasingly vocal in his criticisms of the Palestinian death toll and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza as Israel responds to Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
“President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, including the situation in Rafah and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” the White House said in a statement.
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It said it would release more details about the call later.
Netanyahu has rejected the pressure from Washington, most recently saying that Israel would push ahead with a plan for an offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah to crush Hamas.
Biden has warned against any operation in Rafah without a “credible” plan for protecting more than one million civilians there.
The US president was overheard saying two weeks ago after his State of the Union speech that he would have a “come to Jesus meeting” with the Israeli premier as his frustration grew with Netanyahu.
Biden also pointedly praised a “good speech” last week by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling for new elections in Israel.
He said Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish American in US history, “expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.”
With the UN warning of imminent famine in Gaza, Biden earlier this month ordered the US military to start airdrops of food into the enclave, and is sending American forces to build a temporary port for maritime aid.
But the United States continues to supply billions of dollars in military aid to close US ally Israel.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza began after Palestinian group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, which left about 1,160 dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Since then nearly 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
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