“My expectation and hope is this will be closing down sooner.

In describing the conversation, Biden emphasized support for Israel’s “legitimate right” to defend itself and did not address Palestinian grievances. President Biden, who until now sought to keep Middle East crises on a back burner, telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge calm in the conflict that has killed dozens of people, mostly Palestinians. Criticized for its slow response to escalating warfare, the Biden administration plunged into urgent diplomacy Wednesday, dispatching an emergency envoy to the Mideast, appealing directly to Israel’s prime minister and insisting Israelis and Palestinians deserve “equal measures” of security and freedom.