US again urges ‘de-escalation’ as Israel strikes on Gaza continue

Biden administration says 25 high-level diplomatic calls held to end violence, but Israel has ‘right to defend itself’.

As a barrage of Israeli air strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip continued late into Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said “Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory”. Speaking to reporters late on Wednesday, Biden said his “hope is that we’ll see this coming to a conclusion sooner than later”, however. At least 65 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the coastal Palestinian territory since Monday, after Hamas fired rockets towards Israel in response to a continuing Israeli crackdown on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.