President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s plans to attack Iran in retaliation for the Iranian missile barrage fired at Israel last week.
Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to multiple Israeli escalations, including the assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Israeli officials told Axios that Israel’s retaliation would likely involve airstrikes on Iranian military sites coupled with covert operations similar to the Haniyeh assassination.
NBC News reported on Tuesday that the US was considering supporting Israel’s attack with direct airstrikes of its own, although US officials said intelligence support was more likely. The US has also committed to defending Israel from any Iranian response.
The White House readout of Biden and Harris’s call with Netanyahu said Biden “affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security” and “condemned unequivocally Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1.”
According to Axios, Netanyahu will meet with his security cabinet on Thursday to get approval for military action in Iran, which Israeli officials believe will likely lead to full-blown war. Iran has vowed it would respond to any Israeli attack.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was due to visit Washington on Wednesday, but his trip was postponed. According to Israeli media, Netanyahu wanted to speak with Biden and get approval from the security cabinet to attack Iran before Gallant’s trip.
Gallant issued a threat to Iran on Wednesday, saying, “The Iranian attack was aggressive but inaccurate. In contrast, our attack will be deadly, pinpoint accurate, and most importantly, surprising — they will not know what happened or how it happened. They will just see the results.”
