WASHINTON: President Joe Biden called for "significant de-escalation" from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday after 10 days of heavy fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.
It was Biden's toughest public pressure so far on the U.S. ally, with the president asking Netanyahu in a telephone call to move toward "the path to a cease-fire," according to a White House statement on their conversation.
Pressure has been mounting Biden, too, to do more as the death toll in the conflict has topped 200.
Until Wednesday, Biden had avoided pushing the American ally more directly and publicly for a cease-fire or conveyed such a level of urgency for ending Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas in the thickly populated Gaza Strip.
The Biden administration had relied on what officials described as "quiet, intensive" diplomacy, including quashing a UN Security Council statement that would have addressed a cease-fire.
The administration's handling opened a divide between Biden and Democratic lawmakers, dozens of whom have called for a cease-fire.