As Israel faces some of its tensest moments since the beginning of the war in Gaza with pressure over civilian casualties and fears of an Iranian attack mounting, President Joe Biden delivered his most stern warning yet to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the course of the six-month conflict.
While the Biden administration has increasingly called on Israel to do more to avoid civilian casualties in its war against the Palestinian Hamas movement, the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza earlier this week sparked a new wave of criticism in Washington.
The growing frustration was apparent in the White House readout of the latest call between Biden and Netanyahu, held Thursday.
"President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable," the readout said. "He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers. He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps."
And with little progress made on talks toward securing a deal that would bring at least a temporary halt to the conflict—as well as allow for the return of up to 134 hostages still held in Gaza and boost humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory, the U.S. leader called on his Israeli counterpart to double down on diplomacy.
"He underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians," the White House readout said, "and he urged the Prime Minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home."
The two men were said to have "also discussed public Iranian threats against Israel and the Israeli people," with Biden having "made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of those threats."
Israel's top foe, Iran, has vowed to exact revenge over the deaths of several of its officials, including two senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, in an airstrike attributed to Israel against Tehran's embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday.
The IDF has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the attack, and has declined Newsweek's request for comment. But Israeli military officials have begun taking heightened readiness measures in recent days.
The IDF announced early Thursday that, "in accordance with the situational assessment, it has been decided that leave will be temporarily paused for all IDF combat units." Hours later, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari addressed the situation in video remarks.
"In the past six months, we have been in the midst of a multi-arena war, and we are on high alert in all arenas," Hagari said. "We are monitoring the threats and thwarting them constantly, from several arenas, and are in a high state of both defensive and tactical readiness."
"We are constantly assessing the situation, taking every statement and every enemy seriously," he added. "We have raised the readiness of combat units as needed, wherever it was necessary, we have reinforced our defense systems, and we have planes ready for defense and prepared to act in a variety of scenarios."
Newsweek has reached out to the Israeli and Syrian Missions to the United Nations for comment.
Iranian Permanent Representative Amir Saeid Iravani declined to discuss the matter until "after Iran's response to the Israeli regime," in a remark shared with Newsweek by the Iranian Mission to the U.N.
A day after announcing he had delivered "an important message" to U.S. officials over their support for Israel, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian asserted that "the United States is evidently one main side to blame for the continuation of war and obstruction of efforts to cease it" in remarks also shared with Newsweek.
Netanyahu's office did not immediately publish a readout of the phone call with Biden, but did share remarks delivered by the Israeli premier during a Security Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
"For years, Iran has been acting against us both directly and via its proxies; therefore, Israel is acting against Iran and its proxies, defensively and offensively," Netanyahu said. "We will know how to defend ourselves and we will act according to the simple principle of whoever harms us or plans to harm us, we will harm them."
This is a developing story and more information will be added as it becomes available.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Based in his hometown of Staten Island, New York City, Tom O'Connor is an award-winning Senior Writer of Foreign Policy ... Read more
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