President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday, three days after international aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike, as senior American officials said his frustration over Israel’s actions in Gaza was coming to a head.
Mr. Biden’s anger and frustration over Israel’s conduct in the war has hit a peak in recent weeks, said a senior administration official who discussed the planned phone call and was not authorized to speak publicly. On Tuesday, the president said he was “outraged and heartbroken” by the previous day’s strike in Gaza that killed seven humanitarian workers, including an American, who had been trying to bring food aid to civilians.
It was not immediately clear what, if any, changes in U.S. policy toward Israel would accompany the sharp criticism and anger from Mr. Biden and his top officials. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III also expressed outrage in a call on Wednesday with his counterpart Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, according to the Pentagon.
Asked about what consequences for Israel would follow the statements of indignation, John F. Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, said it was too soon to say, as Israel was still investigating the strike.
“I’m not prepared at this point to speculate about anything we might or might not do. You know, we’re going to have to wait to see what the investigation says,” Mr. Kirby told reporters in Washington. “We are still supporting Israel’s ability to defend itself against this still-viable threat. And that’s going to continue.”
World Central Kitchen, the organization behind the convoy that was attacked, said in a statement on Thursday that it was calling for an independent third-party investigation into the strike that killed its workers. The group urged the governments of Australia, Britain, Canada, the United States and Poland, whose citizens were among the victims, to join in demanding an outside inquiry.
The group suspended its operations in Gaza after the deaths, and other aid organizations said they were also pausing theirs or being more cautious while they evaluated security risks. Those actions are a significant setback to the already challenging efforts to get food supplies into the enclave, where famine-like conditions are widespread and civilians have faced severe deprivation in six months of war.
Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged Israel’s responsibility in a video statement the day after the strike, calling it a “tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people.” It was a rare admission of fault and expression of regret from a leader who has been fiercely defensive of Israel’s decisions in the war.
“It happens in war,” he said in the statement. “We are fully examining this, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
Mr. Biden, in his statement that day, urged Israel to conduct a swift investigation into the strikes, ensure accountability and make the findings public. Mr. Kirby said on Wednesday that the United States did not plan to carry out its own separate investigation.
Some of Mr. Biden’s most enthusiastic supporters in his party have been pressing for the president to place conditions on the costly arms that the United States supplies to Israel. “I hope this will be the moment where the president changes course,” said Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain spoke on the phone with Mr. Netanyahu, telling his Israeli counterpart that he was “appalled” by the strike that killed three Britons and that the situation in Gaza was “increasingly intolerable,” according to a statement from the British government.
Katie Rogers contributed reporting.
