This combination photo shows President Joe Biden, left, on March 8, 2024, in Wallingford, Pa., and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Biden and Netanyahu spoke Monday, March 18, in their first interaction in more than a month as the divide has grown between allies over food crisis in Gaza, conduct of war. (AP Photo)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden issued a stark warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future U.S. support for Israel’s Gaza war depends on the swift implementation of new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.
Biden and Netanyahu ‘s roughly 30-minute call just days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza added a new layer of complication to the leaders’ increasingly strained relationship. Biden’s message marks a sharp change in his administration’s steadfast support for Israel’s war efforts, with the U.S. leader for the first time threatening to rethink his backing if Israel doesn’t change its tactics and allow much more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The White House would not specify what could change about U.S. policy, but it could include altering military sales to Israel and America’s diplomatic backup on the world stage. Administration officials said they expected the Israelis to make announcements on next steps within hours or days and that the U.S. would then assess whether the Israeli moves go far enough.
Members of the Abu Draz family inspect their house after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Members of the Abu Draz family hold the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at their house in Rafah, southern Gaza, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Members of the Abu Draz family mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital morgue in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Members of the Abu Draz family inspect their house after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
FILE – Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. On Thursday, April 4, 2024, Human Rights Watch says an Israeli attack on a Gaza apartment building in October killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children. (AP Photo/Doaa AlBaz, File)
FILE – Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. On Thursday, April 4, 2024, Human Rights Watch says an Israeli attack on a Gaza apartment building in October killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children (AP Photo/Doaa AlBaz, File)
FILE – Palestinians inspect the damage of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. On Thursday, April 4, 2024, Human Rights Watch says an Israeli attack on a Gaza apartment building in October killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children.(AP Photo/Abdul Qader Sabbah, ,File)
FILE – Palestinians look for survivors among the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. On Thursday, April 4, 2024, Human Rights Watch says an Israeli attack on a Gaza apartment building in October killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children. (AP Photo/Abdul Qader Sabbah, File)
An Israeli soldier moves atop a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
CORRECTS DATE – This combination of photos provided by World Central Kitchen/WCK.org, shows seven aid workers who were killed in Gaza Monday, April 1, 2024. Israeli airstrikes that killed the aid workers in Gaza reverberated around the world, as friends and relatives mourned the losses of those who were delivering food to besieged Palestinians with the charity World Central Kitchen. Top left to right: Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom of Australia, Damian Soból of Poland, and Jacob Flickinger of the U.S. and Canada. Bottom left to right: John Chapman of Britain, James Henderson of Britain and James Kirby of Britain. (World Central Kitchen/WCK.org via AP)
Protesters pray during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington,. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Members of the World Central Kitchen aid group, transports the body of one of the six foreign aid workers who were killed in an Israeli strike, at a hospital morgue in Rafah, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Kibbutz Kfar Azza’s rapid response team watch Gaza Strip from a position on the border in southern Israel, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Israeli protesters dressed in Hamas militants’ costumes demonstrate outside of the entrance of the UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) headquarters, the main U.N. agency providing aid in the Gaza Strip, during a protest, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli soldiers rest on top of their tank on the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
A protestor attends a demonstration in support of Palestinians, Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington,. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Demonstrators rally in support of Palestinians, Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington,. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
People march in a rally against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Police try to push back demonstrators in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People march in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A man walks with the Israeli flag past a camp set up by people who are protesting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group near the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Family members of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group attend an Israeli parliamentary committee meeting discussing the situation of female captives in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. Two of the freed abductees came to the hearing – Mia Regev and Sharon Alony-Cunio, who testified about the difficult moments they went through in Hamas captivity. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The body of a person wearing a World Central Kitchen t-shirt lies on the ground at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, April 1, 2024. World Central Kitchen, an aid group, says an Israeli strike that hit its workers in Gaza killed at least seven people, including several foreigners. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
People inspect the site where World Central Kitchen workers were killed in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 2, 2024. World Central Kitchen, an aid group, says an Israeli strike that hit its workers in Gaza killed at least seven people, including several foreigners. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Heba al-Haddad, right, and her family displaced from Gaza City, stand in a makeshift tent camp in Rafah, southern Gaza, Friday, March 29, 2024. Al-Haddad was forced out of her home in Gaza City on March 21 when Israeli troops stormed her apartment and ordered her and her family to leave for the south. Amid fighting that has engulfed the area since Israel raided Shifa Hospital, witnesses say troops have been pushing residents out of nearby neighbourhoods. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
People take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A man holds up a sign during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and to call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group near the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)
Emergency services work at a destroyed building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran’s embassy in Damascus, killing or wounding everyone inside, Syrian state media said Monday. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)
Police disperse ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a highway during a protest against army recruitment, near Bnei Brak, Israel, on Monday, April 1, 2024. Ultra-Orthodox men have long received exemptions from military service, which is compulsory for most Jewish men, generating widespread resentment. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to present a new proposal to force more religious men to enlist. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Police disperse ultra-Orthodox Jews blocking a highway during a protest against army recruitment, near Bnei Brak, Israel, on Monday, April 1, 2024. Ultra-Orthodox men have long received exemptions from military service, which is compulsory for most Jewish men, generating widespread resentment. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to present a new proposal to force more religious men to enlist. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Ultra-Orthodox Jews block a highway during a protest against army recruitment, near Bnei Brak, Israel, on Monday, April 1, 2024. Ultra-Orthodox men have long received exemptions from military service, which is compulsory for most Jewish men, generating widespread resentment. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to present a new proposal to force more religious men to enlist. Hebrew on the sign reads:” We’ll die and not go to the army”. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)
Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hajjar)
An Israeli flag is displayed atop a tent at a camp set up by the people who protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas, near the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
People take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Holding an Israeli flag a man walks past a camp set up by people who are protesting against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas, near the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A woman holds up a sign that reads in English ‘Palestinians Lives Matter’, during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday, calling on the government to reach a deal to free dozens of hostages held by Hamas and to hold early elections. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Police push people, who take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem Sunday, March 31, 2024. Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday, calling on the government to reach a deal to free dozens of hostages held by Hamas and to hold early elections. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group block a freeway in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday, calling on the government to reach a deal to free dozens of hostages held by Hamas and to hold early elections. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People run away from police during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday, calling on the government to reach a deal to free dozens of hostages held by Hamas and to hold early elections. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday, calling on the government to reach a deal to free dozens of hostages held by Hamas and to hold early elections. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Police drag away people who take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered outside the parliament building in Jerusalem on Sunday, calling on the government to reach a deal to free dozens of hostages held by Hamas and to hold early elections. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Members of the ‘Brothers in Arms’ reservist protest group wave Israeli flags during a demonstration in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, demanding equality in Israel’s military service, in Jerusalem on Sunday, March 31, 2024. Ultra-Orthodox men have long received exemptions from military service, which is compulsory for most Jewish men, generating widespread resentment. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to present a new proposal for more equal service. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Members of Brothers and Sisters in Arms shout at protest ultra-Orthodox Jews during a protest gainst Israel’s exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews from mandatory military service, in Mea Shearim ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, June 25, 2023. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the Israeli leader will undergo surgery on Sunday for a hernia. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
People take part in a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group outside of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Sunday, March 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An aircraft airdrops humanitarian aid over the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, March 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Demonstrators march to the White House in support of Palestinians, Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre listens as White House national security communications adviser John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Thursday, April 4, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Biden “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,” the White House said in a statement following the leaders’ call. “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.”
Biden also told Netanyahu that an “immediate cease-fire is essential” and urged Israel to reach such an accord “without delay,” according to the White House, which described the conversation as “direct” and “honest.”
There was no immediate reaction to the call from the Israeli government.
The leaders’ conversation comes as the World Central Kitchen, founded by restauranteur José Andrés to provide immediate food relief to disaster-stricken areas, called for an independent investigation into the Israeli strikes that killed the group’s staff members, including an American citizen.
The White House has said the U.S. has no plans to conduct its own investigation even as it called on Israel to do more to prevent the harming of innocent civilians and aid workers as it carries out its operations in Gaza.
Separately, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels that U.S. support would be curtailed if Israel doesn’t make significant adjustments to how it’s carrying out the war. “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our policy,” he said.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby echoed the call for “tangible” and “concrete” changes to be taken by the Israelis beyond reiterating long stated calls for allowing additional aid to get into Gaza.
“If there’s no changes to their policy in their approaches, then there’s going to have to be changes to ours,” Kirby said. “There are things that need to be done. There are too many civilians being killed.”
The demands for Israel to bring the conflict to a swift close were increasing across the political spectrum, with former President Donald Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive nominee to face Biden this fall, saying Thursday that Israel was “absolutely losing the PR war” and calling for a resolution to the bloodshed.
“Get it over with and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “They have to get it done. Get it over with and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace.”
The two leaders also discussed Iranian threats against Israel, Kirby said. Earlier this week, Iranian leaders vowed to hit back after an airstrike widely blamed on Israel destroyed Iran’s Consulate in Syria, killing 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday the attack “will not remain without answer.”
Biden also renewed his concerns about Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack. Vice President Kamala Harris, Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan also joined the call.
Still, the Biden administration has proceeded apace with arms transfers and deliveries to Israel, many of which were approved years ago but had only been partially or not at all fulfilled. Just this week, on Monday, the Democratic administration’s “Daily List” of munitions transfers included the sale to Israel of more than 1,000 500-pound (225-kilograms) bombs and more than 1,000 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) bombs.
Officials said those transfers had been approved before the publication of the list on Monday — the day Israeli airstrikes hit a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, killing seven of the group’s employees — and that they fell below the threshold for new congressional notification. Also, they noted that the bombs are not for delivery to Israel until 2025.
Israel has acknowledged responsibility for the strikes but said the convoy was not targeted and the workers’ deaths were not intentional. The country continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings.
Andrés harshly criticized the Israeli military for the strike, and his organization has paused its work in Gaza.
“The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon,” he wrote on X. “No more innocent lives lost.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, is among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. Within two months, researchers say, the offensive already has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.
AP writers Matthew Lee in Brussels, Jill Colvin in New York and Colleen Long and Chris Megerian contributed.
