Biden Calls for De-escalation, Says Israel Not Overreacting

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday called for a de-escalation of violence in the Middle East as the conflict in Gaza intensified, saying he wants to see a significant reduction in rocket attacks.

Biden said that he does not think Israel has overreacted in its response to rocket fire from terrorists in Gaza.

“One of the things I’ve seen thus far is that there has not been a significant overreaction [by Israel],” he said in reply to a question at a press conference.

“The question is how they get to a point where there is a significant reduction in the attacks, particularly the rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired into population centers, but I expect that I’ll be having some more discussions,” Biden said.

He described his phone call yesterday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “brief.”