President Joe Biden said Thursday that he does not think Israel has overreacted in its response to massive rocket fire from Gaza.
“One of the things I’ve seen thus far is that there has not been a significant overreaction [by Israel],” he said during 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 added.
He also noted that his administration is in frequent contact with Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others about finding an end to the violence.
A day earlier, Donald Trump lashed out at his successor for showing “weakness” by not being more vocal in defending Israel.
“Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Biden’s weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies,” Trump said in a statement.
He described his own administration as “the Peace Presidency” because Israel’s enemies knew the Jewish state had U.S. backing.
“When I was in office we were known as the Peace Presidency, because Israel’s adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked,” Trump said.
“America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the US will always strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself,” he added.
Biden’s remarks on Thursday come as rockets from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip continued to rain down on Israel, prompting retaliatory strikes by the Israeli military. Thursday afternoon saw a fresh barrage of more than 100 rockets launched at Tel Aviv and other cities in the center of the country. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted an airstrike on Hamas targets Thursday, killing “dozens” of other terrorist operatives.
The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted about 90 percent of the Gaza-launched rockets targeting population centers in Israel.
Around one fifth of the 1,850 rockets over the past two days fell short of their target and landed within Gaza, the IDF said. More than 80 Palestinians have been killed by retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said.
According to the IDF, dozens of those killed were members of terrorists, some of whom were actively launching attacks on Israel when they were killed.
Others, including at least three children, were killed by errant rockets that fell short of their target, Israel and a Palestinian human rights group, Defense for Children, said.
Seven Israelis have been killed from rocket fire, including a soldier who was hit by an anti-tank missile, a five-year old boy, two elderly women, and an Arab Israeli and his daughter.
On Thursday evening, Israel also appeared to be attacked from its northern border with Lebanon. A rocket was fired from Lebanon and exploded near an Israeli settlement in the Western Galilee. There were no casualties.