Biden Says Will Speak with Israeli Leader, Vowing All-Out War in Middle East Must Be Avoided

US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Biden Says Will Speak with Israeli Leader, Vowing All-Out War in Middle East Must Be Avoided

US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One, en route to Washington, DC, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)

President Joe Biden said Sunday he would speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and believes that an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided.

“It has to be," Biden told reporters as he boarded Air Force One for Washington. “We really have to avoid it.”

The president’s statements come as Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon killed dozens of people on Sunday. He would not say when he planned to speak with Netanyahu.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah sustained a string of deadly blows to its command structure, including the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as part of a wave of increasingly brazen Israeli strikes meant to undercut the group's capacity to attack its territory.

Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have been forced to evacuate near the Israel-Lebanon border as Hezbollah has launched near-daily rocket volleys at Israel over the past 11 months and Israel has countered with its own strikes.

With tens of thousands of civilians displaced on both sides, the Biden administration has tried to bring about a negotiated resolution that would allow them to return home and prevent a wider regional conflict.

Earlier Sunday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Israel has “wiped out” Hezbollah’s command structure with a barrage of airstrikes that has taken out Nasrallah and several of Hezbollah’s leaders.

But Kirby warned Hezbollah will work to rebuild quickly.

“I think people are safer without him walking around,” said Kirby, referring to Friday’s strike killing Nasrallah. “But they will try to recover. We’re watching to see what they do to try to fill this leadership vacuum. It’s going to be tough."

Kirby sidestepped questions about whether the administration agreed with how the Israelis are going about targeting Hezbollah leaders, who the Israelis say have built command structures and other facilities adjacent to or underneath civilian sites. The strikes, according to Lebanese officials, have also killed many innocent civilians.

The White House continues to call on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a 21-day temporary ceasefire that was floated by the US, France and other countries last week as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly.

“If you want to get those folks back home safely and sustainably, we believe that a diplomatic path is the right course,” Kirby said.

He made the comments during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”



Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

 A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

 A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)

An Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in a coastal town south of Beirut killed at least one person, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The ministry said 20 others were wounded in the strike Tuesday in Jiyeh, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the port of Sidon.

The attack hit an area that has not been a regular target of Israeli military operations and had not received prior evacuation warnings.

“It felt like it was inside the house,” Malika Al Hajj, an elderly woman living in the area, told The Associated Press. “I ran away — I don’t even know which neighbor brought me out, because everything was black. You couldn’t see anything.”

Once outside, Hajj said she discovered that the strike had hit the nearby building where her nephews live.

“Men, women and children” live inside, she said. “I just want to be reassured. I saw some of them, but the others, they told me, were taken to the hospital."

At the site of the strike, the building’s skeletal frame stands amid the rubble, its concrete shattered, windows blown out and metal twisted from the impact.

Families were seen leaving the area, carrying what belongings they could gather.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 3,013 people and injured 13,553 others since Oct. 2023, the Lebanese government said on Tuesday.