Biden speaks with Netanyahu as Israeli PM warns war with Iran proxies could spread Gaza’s misery to Lebanon

Tel Aviv — President Biden spoke Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone, the White House said. It was the leaders’ first conversation in two months, and it came as Israel plans its promised retaliation for Iran’s ballistic missile attack last week. The White House said Vice President Kamala Harris, running to succeed Mr. Biden in November’s U.S. election, joined the call. 

The call lasted about 30 minutes, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who said the conversation was “direct” and “productive.” Asked whether the Biden administration expects Israel to give it advance notice of any action it plans to take against Iran, Jean-Pierre said “those discussions continue” and declined to provide additional details. 

Mr. Biden and Harris spoke with Netanyahu amid growing concern that Israel’s retaliatory action against Iran could hasten the escalation of violence in the Middle East into a wider regional war, with the potential to drag Iran and the U.S. directly into the fighting. Mr. Biden and Harris have said Israel has the right to defend itself and respond to Iran’s attack, but the president said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Fresh Israeli airstrikes pummeled the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh on Wednesday — a stronghold of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah. The Israeli Air Force said it had targeted a Hezbollah weapons production facility and intelligence headquarters in Dahieh. 

The Israel Defense Forces said, meanwhile, that it was expanding the number of troops deployed on the ground in southern Lebanon, also a longtime Hezbollah stronghold, and pushing further west into that region. Israel launched cross-border ground operations against Hezbollah at the end of September, saying they would be “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence.”

Since then, the IDF has ordered people in more than 100 towns and villages across southern Lebanon to evacuate, and according to Lebanese government figures, more than 1,000 people have been killed in the country since Israel’s military operations began just over a week ago.

The IDF said Hezbollah launched around 180 projectiles at Israel on Tuesday alone, sending thousands of people in northern Israel into bomb shelters. The powerful Iranian proxy group started firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, right after its ideological ally Hamas sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip with its terrorist massacre the day before. 

The IDF says Hezbollah has fired more than 10,000 rockets at Israel over the last year, the vast majority of which are intercepted by Israeli missile defenses or land in empty areas. 

In a Tuesday night address, Netanyahu railed against Hezbollah and warned the people of Lebanon that if they failed to reject the Iran-backed group, it would mean a “long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

The death toll from the war in Gaza climbed to more than 42,000 people on Wednesday, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said, as Israel expanded its offensive in the northern part of the enclave.

At least 45 people were killed and dozens more injured near the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza. Three hospitals in the region were given evacuation orders and told they had 24 hours to move all their patients and staff.

“It’s like hell. We can’t get out,” Mohamed Awda, who lives with his six siblings and parents, told The Associated Press over the phone. The AP said explosions could be heard in the background as he was speaking.

Local residents said thousands of people had been trapped since Israel launched its latest operation in Jabalia on Sunday.

“The quadcopters are everywhere, and they fire at anyone. You can’t even open the window,” Awda told the AP.

Six people were wounded Wednesday in a stabbing attack in the northern Israeli city of Hadera. The police said the attacker was  “neutralized” after initially fleeing the scene.

CBS News producer Michal Ben-Gal in Jerusalem and correspondent Weijia Jiang in Washington contributed to this report.

contributed to this report.