Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Wednesday that airstrikes in the Gaza Strip would continue, after U.S. President Joe Biden demanded he immediately wind down a conflict that has killed more than 200 people.
Netanyahu said in a statement from his office that he is “determined to continue this operation until its goal is achieved -- to restore quiet and security to you, the citizens of Israel.”
Biden spoke to Netanyahu earlier Wednesday for the fourth time since fresh hostilities broke out between Israel and Hamas last week.
“The president conveyed to the prime minister that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a cease-fire,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.
But in his own statement, Netanyahu didn’t use the words “cease-fire” or “de-escalation.” He said the airstrikes were “harming the capabilities of the terrorist organizations.”
“I especially appreciate the support of U.S. President Joe Biden for the State of Israel’s right to self-defense,” he added.
Hamas deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk was cited on the website of Al-Mayadeen TV on Wednesday as saying that he expects that “a cease-fire will be reached within a day or two.” In Israel, Channel 12 reported that a cease-fire may be reached on Friday, without citing sources for the information.
But the timeline is ultimately up to Israel. Since the early days of the fighting, Hamas has expressed a willingness to dial it back, with the group’s leader Ismail Haniyeh saying last Tuesday that “if the occupation wants to escalate, then the resistance is ready, and if it wants to stop, the resistance is also ready.”
Israel has repeatedly said that it will continue its offensive until it determines that Hamas’ capabilities have been significantly degraded. Netanyahu said Tuesday that the operation has set back Palestinian militants “many years” and that other enemies “will learn the lesson” from the heavy price Gaza gunmen have paid. On Wednesday, he told foreign diplomats that Israel can either “deter” or “conquer” Hamas, the Ynet website reported.
Biden has come under pressure from Democratic congressional allies to push Israel toward a cease-fire in the conflict. Several liberal House members led by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan introduced a resolution Wednesday to block a planned $735 million U.S. arms sale to Israel.
“The United States should not be rubber-stamping weapons sales to the Israeli government as they deploy our resources to target international media outlets, schools, hospitals, humanitarian missions and civilian sites for bombing,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet, calling for sympathetic Americans to call their members of Congress and lobby for the resolution.
Tlaib, the first woman of Palestinian descent to win election to Congress, spoke briefly with Biden about the Gaza violence Tuesday when the president visited a Ford Motor Co. plant in Michigan. The New York Times reported that she urged him to do more to protect Palestinian lives in the conflict.
Their resolution faces long odds of passage, as there’s generally strong bipartisan support for Israel in Congress.
“The United States is working tirelessly through various levels of government to express support for a cease-fire, get to a place of sustainable calm, and build a path forward to addressing the underlying causes of conflict,” Jean-Pierre said.
“The two leaders had a detailed discussion on the state of events in Gaza, the Israelis’ progress in degrading the capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist elements, and ongoing diplomatic efforts by regional governments and the United States,” she added.
Jean-Pierre, the White House spokeswoman, declined to say whether Biden had previously pushed Netanyahu on a cease-fire. The president first expressed his public support for the move on Monday.
More Israeli airstrikes battered the Palestinian enclave Wednesday as Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel. The Palestinian death toll rose to 219, while 12 people in Israel have been killed since fighting broke out May 10.
Egypt has proposed a cease-fire that would start at 6 a.m. Thursday, local time, according to Israel’s Channel 12 TV. The report couldn’t be confirmed, and the Israeli government declined to comment on it. Spokespeople for various Palestinian groups declined to comment or denied the report.
Separately, Al Arabiya said a high-level Egyptian delegation is heading to the West Bank to reaffirm Cairo’s commitment to helping with a cease-fire, citing people it didn’t identify.
Israeli airstrikes have pummeled Gaza and killed several Hamas commanders and intelligence officials. Hamas — which governs Gaza and is considered a terrorist group by the U.S., European Union and other nations — has fired more than 3,700 rockets at Israeli territory.
Rockets fired from Lebanon struck Israel for the first time Wednesday since the fighting began, with one intercepted and three others “most likely” having fallen in open territory, according to the military, which responded with artillery fire.
Two previous launches from Israel’s northern neighbor, home to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Palestinian factions, fell short. Even so, the attacks from Lebanon have raised the specter of another front opening.
———
(Fadwa Hodali, Saud Abu Ramadan, Justin Sink, Tarek El-Tablawy, Billy House and Gwen Ackerman contributed to this story.)
