WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time on Thursday Israeli military strikes killed seven World Center Kitchen aid workers earlier this week.
The US official said that Biden intends to express his anger about the incident to Netanyahu during their conversation.
The call between the two leaders was arranged after the strike, a separate US official said, calling Biden “very angry” about the incident.
The president’s anger is “symptomatic of a broader problem with how the Israelis conduct their operations,” because “either they fail to pass conflict resolution details from the World Central Kitchen to their military, or they are received and ignored.”
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to join the call, though she will be from afar as she travels to North Carolina on Thursday.
A dual US-Canadian citizen was among the seven workers killed in Monday’s strike, according to chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen. The White House said Tuesday that Biden called Andrés “to express his heartbreak” over their deaths.
Israel said it did not intend to target and kill the aid workers, but said the charity’s team was coordinating its actions with the Israel Defense Forces and that they were traveling in a “deconfliction zone” in vehicles containing two armored vehicles. Branded with the World Central Kitchen logo.
After the attack, the nonprofit said it was suspends operations in the region immediately.
Biden and Netanyahu last spoke by phone on March 18. In that call, Biden warned the Israeli leader not to allow a military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Senior US and Israeli officials held a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss Israel’s plans for a possible ground invasion of the city. It sparked controversy after the Americans withdrew Israel’s offer to evacuate Palestinian civilians sheltering there, along with two US officials and a former US official. said with the meeting.
Israel Officials said 1.4 million civilians from Rafah were proposed to be relocated to tents north of the city, but the plan did not address sanitation, food and water needs or provide resources for most of the tents.
Meanwhile, Biden met with members of the Muslim community at the White House on Tuesday. One of the attendees, Salima Suswell, founder of the Black Muslim Leadership Council, told NBC News that the president told the group that first lady Jill Biden had single-handedly called on him to end the war between Israel and Hamas.
Biden said this after a doctor treating the wounded in Gaza told the president that his wife did not want him to attend the meeting. Biden shared that he could speak and the first lady told him, “Stop, stop now,” Suswell said. The New York Times was the first to comment.
Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee, Yuliya Talmazan and Yamiche Alcindor contributed.