President Biden reportedly fuming at Israeli prime minister, as the two leaders speak for the first time since an aid convoy was accidentally bombed in Gaza.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone thursday for their first direct talk since an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip was accidentally targeted by Israeli warplanes, leaving seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen organization dead.
The two leaders spoke for approximately 45 minutes Thursday evening beginning at 7:00 p.m. Israel time.
Tensions have been rising between the two leaders lately, an American official told Axios in a reported published Thursday, with President Biden growing increasingly frustrated with the Israeli leader.
“Biden is pissed. The temperature regarding Bibi is very high,” the official was quoted as saying.
White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that the president’s patience with Netanyahu is wearing thing.
“I think you could sense the frustration in that statement yesterday,” Kirby said, after Biden said he was “outraged” over the accidental targeting of the aid workers.
“I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday,” Biden said Tuesday. “They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also expressed his “outrage at the Israeli strike” during a telephone conversation with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) Wednesday night, according to a statement by the Pentagon.
Gallant vowed a “thorough and transparent investigation” into the incident, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
The Israeli Defense Minister also promised to work closely with aid organizations to increase the flow of goods into the Gaza Strip.
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