U.S. President Joe Biden pulls off his face mask as he arrives to speak about loosening coronavirus disease (COVID-19) mask guidelines while delivering an update on the administration’s pandemic response outside the White House in Washington, U.S., April 27, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

i24 News – US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he does not view Israel’s response to the barrages of rockets from the Gaza Strip as a “significant overreaction.”

Speaking to the reporters at a press conference, Biden said that “the question is how they get to a point where there is a significant reduction in the attacks, particularly the rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired into population centers.”

“I expect that I’ll be having some more discussions,” he added, stressing that the US outreach was not limited to Israel, and that a multitude of government bodies, including the State Department, intelligence and military, have been talking with their regional peers.

“We haven’t just spoken with the Israelis, it’s also Egyptians, and Saudis and so on,” he stressed, adding: “It’s a work in progress right now.”

Previously, the US reportedly pulled out some 120 military and civilian personnel out of Israel amid the Gaza flare-up.

Biden had a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he described as “brief.”

In the conversation, he affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of the rocket attacks from the Gaza terrorists, the White House said.

Since Monday, the Gaza factions had fired over 1,600 rockets into Israel, prompting the IDF to respond with force.