United States President Barack Obama has called the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Morsi amidst escalating violence in Gaza.
Morsi recalled his ambassador to Israel protesting against the Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Obama urged Netanyahu to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday after the call during which the Obama reiterated US support for Israel's right to self-defence in light of the barrage of rocket attacks launched from Gaza against its civilians.
"The two agreed that Hamas needs to stop its attacks on Israel to allow the situation to de-escalate," the White House said.
Earlier, the US Vice President Joe Biden received a sbriefing from Netanyahu on the events in Gaza.
Obama also spoke with Morsi given Egypt's central role in preserving regional security.
"In their conversation, President Obama condemned the rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and reiterated Israel's right to self-defence," White House said.
The two leaders agreed on the importance of working to de-escalat the situation as quickly as possible and agreed
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