Netanyahu and Biden to speak as Israel's Iran response nears

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden are set to speak later Wednesday amid frantic efforts by Washington to temper Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack last week.

The two leaders are expected to discuss Israel’s planned response to the assault, which the U.S., European and Arab states fear may include a strike on Iranian nuclear or oil facilities that could widen the Middle East conflict and push up energy prices. Netanyahu is then due to hold a security-cabinet meeting on Thursday, according to an Israeli official.

The call with Biden was scheduled after Netanyahu intervened to cancel a visit to the U.S. by Israel’s defense chief, Yoav Gallant, that was seen as a chance to coordinate the response to Iran with Washington. The leaders of the two close allies haven’t spoken since August, amid growing strains over Israel’s rejection of previous U.S. calls for a cease-fire in the wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel just over a week ago, in part due to the intense wave of attacks against its allied militia Hezbollah. Netanyahu said the move by his arch foe was “a big mistake.” The attack caused little damage, with one fatality in the West Bank, but some air bases were hit and millions of Israelis were forced into shelters.

Israel is stepping up its campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and Netanyahu warned Tuesday that the country could face a long war and devastation on the scale of Gaza, which is largely in ruins after a year of Israel’s war on Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

The military sent a fourth division into the south of Lebanon — a division usually contains 5,000 to 10,000 troops — and has targeted the group with persistent bombing raids. The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday 185 military targets have been attacked in the past day.

Netanyahu called for Lebanese people to “take your country back” from Hezbollah, which is also a political party with substantial support among Shiite Muslims.

“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” the Israeli prime minister said.

Hezbollah has been firing rockets of its own, and two people died Wednesday in the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona after a barrage of missiles fired from Lebanon, emergency officials said. The group has also targeted Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, and the surrounding area.

Hezbollah’s deputy chief, Naim Qasem, said Tuesday that the group supports efforts for a cease-fire with Israel, without naming a longstanding pre-condition of a truce in Gaza. Still, Israeli demands for the pullback of Hezbollah to the Litani River, which lies about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border, are likely to be unacceptable to the organization.

The U.S. backed the proposed Hezbollah withdrawal, which was required under a United Nations Security Council resolution ending a 2006 war but never implemented. “We support Israel’s efforts to degrade Hezbollah’s capability but ultimately we do want to see a diplomatic resolution to this conflict,” Matthew Miller, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said in a briefing.

“The situation on the ground has changed over the past few weeks,” he said. “What we want to see come out of this new situation is the ultimate implementation” of the UN resolution.

Israel’s attacks on Lebanon — which Netanyahu says are necessary in part to return tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from communities in the north of the country — have devastated much of southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut, the capital. More than 1,500 people, including many civilians and children, have been killed by strikes in recent weeks, according to Lebanese officials.

Around one million people have been displaced and thousands are fleeing to neighboring Syria, itself still in a state of civil war.

The U.S. and many other countries consider Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations.

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(With assistance from Dana Khraiche, Sam Dagher, Alisa Odenheimer, Galit Altstein and Omar Tamo.)