WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden expressed support for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the eighth day of airstrikes and rocket barrages that have killed more than 200 people, most of them Palestinians in Gaza.
Biden stopped short of joining Democrats and others in demanding an immediate cease-fire. But the White House readout of the call, while still expressing support for Israel, showed increased concern about the fighting, which includes Israeli airstrikes aimed at weakening Hamas.
Biden also "encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians," the White House said.
As the worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting since 2014 raged, the Biden administration had previously limited its public criticisms to Hamas. It had declined to send a top-level envoy to the region or press Israel publicly and directly to wind down its latest military operation in the Gaza Strip, which is home to more than 2 million people. Cease-fire mediation by Egypt and others has shown no sign of progress.
At least 212 Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes, including 61 children, with more than 1,400 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Ten people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier, have been killed in the ongoing rocket attacks launched from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel.
The United States, Israel's top ally, on Monday blocked for a third time what would otherwise have been a unanimous statement by the 15-nation U.N. Security Council expressing "grave concern" over the intensifying Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the loss of civilian lives. The final U.S. rejection Monday scrapped the Security Council statement, at least for now.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who spoke Monday with Netanyahu, emphasized her country's solidarity with Israel, condemned the continued rocket attacks from Gaza and expressed hope for a swift end to the fighting, according to her office.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was focusing on "quiet, intensive diplomacy."
The Biden administration's publicly tempered response comes despite calls from Security Council partners, some Democrats and others for Biden and other international leaders to wade more deeply into diplomacy to end the violence and revive long-collapsed mediation for genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Denmark on the first stop of an unrelated tour of Nordic countries, said Monday that the United States is ready to spring in to help if Israel and Hamas signal interest in ending hostilities -- but that the U.S. wasn't demanding that they do so.
"Ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a cease-fire," Blinken said. He described U.S. contacts in support of an end to the fighting, including the calls he was making in midair between his Nordic stops.
Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who is based abroad, said the group has been contacted by the United Nations, Russia, Egypt and Qatar as part of cease-fire efforts but "will not accept a solution that is not up to the sacrifices of the Palestinian people."
Blinken defended the U.S. handling of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict as America works to push for climate-accord deals, withdraw troops from Afghanistan and turn U.S. attention to what Biden sees as the nation's most pressing foreign policy priorities.
"We have to be able to do everything at once; that's the challenge," Blinken said.
It's "a big world, and we do have responsibilities," he said.
Blinken also said Monday that he had asked Israel for any evidence to back up its claim that Hamas was operating in a Gaza office building housing The Associated Press and Al Jazeera news bureaus that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike over the weekend. But he said that he personally had "not seen any information provided."
ISRAELI STRIKES
The Israeli military unleashed another heavy wave of airstrikes Monday on the Gaza Strip, saying it destroyed militant tunnels and the homes of nine Hamas commanders. International diplomacy to end the weeklong war appeared to make little headway.
Netanyahu met with top security officials on Monday evening and later said Israel would "continue to strike terror targets" in Gaza. "We will continue to operate as long as necessary in order to return calm and security to all Israeli citizens," he said.
The latest attacks destroyed the five-story building housing the Hamas-run Religious Affairs Ministry, a building that Israel said housed the main operations center of Hamas' internal security forces.
Israel also killed a top Gaza leader of Islamic Jihad, another militant group that the Israeli military blamed for some of the thousands of rocket attacks launched at Israel in recent days. Israel said its strikes destroyed 9 miles of tunnels used by militants.
The Israeli army said that in its "third wave" of attacks on the network early Monday, it employed 54 warplanes, releasing 110 rockets and bombs for some 20 minutes.
The Israeli military said it struck 35 "terror targets" Monday as well as the tunnels, which are part of an elaborate system it refers to as the "Metro," used by fighters to take cover from airstrikes. They included a strike against a building that housed the Qatari Red Crescent, Qatar said. That attack killed a man and a 12-year-old girl.
The military also said it struck nine houses in different parts of northern Gaza that belonged to "high-ranking commanders" in Hamas. Islamic Jihad said a strike killed Hasam Abu Harbid, the militant group's commander for the northern Gaza Strip.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 130. It has released the names and photos of more than two dozen militant commanders who it says were "eliminated." The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, does not give a breakdown of how many casualties were militants or civilians.
Since the fighting began, the Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes that it says are targeting Hamas' militant infrastructure.
Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 3,200 rockets into Israel. Israeli military officials said Hamas had stockpiled about 15,000 rockets before the war started. Rocket attacks continued Monday, with one hitting a building in the city of Ashdod and causing injuries, the Israeli police said.
Violence also broke out between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, leaving scores of people injured.
Gaza City's mayor, Yahya Sarraj, said the strikes had caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure. He said water supplies to hundreds of households were disrupted. "We are trying hard to provide water, but the situation remains difficult," he said.
The U.N. has warned that the territory's sole power station is at risk of running out of fuel. Gaza already experiences daily power outages for between eight and 12 hours, and tap water is undrinkable. Mohammed Thabet, a spokesman for the territory's electricity distribution company, said it has fuel to supply Gaza with electricity for two or three days.
Palestinian officials said Israel pledged to open its only cargo crossing with Gaza for several hours today to allow humanitarian aid -- including fuel, food and medicine -- to enter.
General strikes have been called for today in Israeli Arab communities and the West Bank to protest the violence in Gaza and Jerusalem. The protest has the support of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
LAWMAKERS REACT
In the U.S., Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., on Monday joined dozens of Democratic lawmakers in calling for the cease-fire by both sides.
Progressive Democrats have been more outspoken in demanding pressure on Israel as the death toll has mounted.
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., linked Palestinian issues to those of Black Americans.
"We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma," Bush tweeted.
Some U.S. officials have urged Israel to halt its operations soon or risk losing ground in the international court of public opinion. Late on Sunday, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and 27 other senators called for an immediate truce "to prevent further loss of life."
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, took to the Senate floor on Monday to assail lawmakers for including Israel in their demands for a cease-fire.
"To say that both sides, both sides need to deescalate downplays the responsibility terrorists have for initiating the conflict in the first place and suggests Israelis are not entitled to defend themselves against ongoing rocket barrages," McConnell said.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., led 19 Republican senators in releasing a resolution supporting Israel's side of the fighting. They plan to try to introduce the legislation next week.
CHINA CRITICIZES U.S.
China on Monday renewed calls for the U.S. to play a constructive role in ending the conflict in Gaza and to stop blocking efforts at the United Nations to demand an end to the bloodshed.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said China, as rotating head of the Security Council, has urged a cease-fire and the provision of humanitarian assistance, among other proposals, but that obstruction by "one country" has prevented the council from speaking with one voice.
"We call on the United States to assume its due responsibility and take an impartial position to support the council and play its due role in cooling down the situation and rebuilding trust for a political solution," Zhao said at a daily briefing.
At an emergency high-level meeting of the Security Council on Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on the U.S. to join the 14 other council members and support a statement urging a halt to the violence and reaffirming support for a two-state solution to the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Wang, who chaired the virtual meeting, said the "dangerous and urgent" situation calls for an immediate cease-fire.
"The international community must take action right now and make further efforts to avert a deterioration of the situation, prevent the region from backsliding to turbulence, and protect peoples' lives," he said.
Zhao said Monday that China "strongly condemns" violence against civilians and calls for an end to airstrikes, ground attacks, rocket fire and "other actions that aggravate the situation."
Information for this article was contributed by Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Lee, Edith M. Lederer, Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Aamer Madhani, Padmananda Rama, Joshua Boak, Fares Akram, Ravi Nessman, Joseph Krauss, Bassem Mroue and Samy Magdy of The Associated Press; by Marc Santora, Dan Bilefsky and Jim Tankersley of The New York Times; and by Amy Teibel, Fadwa Hodali and Saud Abu Ramadan of Bloomberg News (WPNS).
