US President Joe Biden pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce Israeli military operations in Gaza in his phone call last Friday and stressed that he would not support a year-long war in the Gaza Strip, two senior American officials announced. which were quoted by the Walla website.
Biden's request to Netanyahu underscores growing U.S. concerns about the ongoing war in Gaza and the U.S. president's desire to end the war as long as possible before the November 2024 presidential election. One of Biden's advisers said the White House fears losing the votes of young voters. who are increasingly speaking out against the president's policies regarding the war in Gaza. A U.S. source close to the White House said Biden cannot afford to let the war in Gaza and the high number of Palestinian civilians killed daily continue to dominate U.S. news as the presidential election approaches.
At least a third of the 40-minute conversation between Biden and Netanyahu on January 19 focused on the timing of the IDF's transition to low-intensity fighting in the Gaza Strip and Israel's strategy in the war in general, the American president pointed out to the press the day before Netanyahu held a conference at which he declared that the war in Gaza would continue for several months. Joe Biden made clear that he would not sit through a year-long war and urged him to accelerate the transition to low-intensity fighting to reduce damage to civilians.
According to an official, Joe Biden expressed incomprehension about Israel's strategy to end the war in Gaza and repeatedly asked what Netanyahu's post-war plan was.
Mr. Netanyahu responded that the transition to Phase III of the IDF operation and lower-intensity fighting had already taken place in the northern Gaza Strip and would later also take place in the south. Netanyahu made it clear that the transition to this phase would take longer than Israel had expected and insisted that Hamas would regain control of the Strip if the Israeli army leaves the areas where it is currently located.