Biden, in Netanyahu call, urges ‘significant de-escalation’

President Joe Biden called for “significant de-escalation” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday after 10 days of heavy fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.

It was Biden’s toughest public pressure so far on the U.S. ally, with the president asking Netanyahu in a telephone call to move toward “the path to a cease-fire,” according to a White House statement on their conversation.

Pressure has been mounting Biden, too, to do more as the death toll in the conflict has topped 200.