US President Joe Biden lashed out at Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone conversation on Thursday, according to reports in Israeli media.
Israeli Channel 12 News reported that the outburst occurred after Netanyahu told Biden that Israel was moving forward with negotiations on a captives-for-ceasefire deal with Hamas, and would soon send a delegation to resume talks despite the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The talks have been going of with little progress for months, sparking Biden to tell Netanyahu to "stop bullshitting me."
At the end of the conversation, he added "don’t take the president for granted," in reference to Israeli and American cooperation in the event of a potential all-out war.
When quizzed about the outburst, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister does not comment on the content of his private discussions with the US president.
The New York Times also reported that Biden called the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran "poorly timed" during the call.
Biden publicly said last week that the killing of Haniyeh, a key negotiator in ceasefire talks, "doesn’t help" efforts to secure a truce in Gaza and the release of captives held there.
The comment was made at Maryland’s Joint Andrews Base, where he was waiting for the arrival of Americans detained in Russia.
Biden said he was "very concerned" about the rising tensions in the Middle East and said he had a “very direct” conversation with Netanyahu earlier in the day.
A report in Axios on Friday said the Biden administration was frustrated that it was kept in the dark over Israel’s plans to kill Haniyeh in Iran, after Netanyahu gave Washington the impression last week that he was close to reaching a captive release and ceasefire deal in Gaza.
A US official described Thursday’s phone conversation between the two men as "tough."
The call comes as Israel’s war on Gaza continues to rage on, with over 39,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October and an additional 90,000 wounded in the same time frame.