On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden spoke on the phone with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – for the first time in over a month.
According to the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the conversation was described as "direct", "honest" and "productive".
She says that the conversation was a continuation of discussions that the countries have had since Iran fired rockets at Israel on October 1.
We will continue to have these discussions with Israel about how they will react, says Jean-Pierre.
At the same time, Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant came out on Wednesday and said that Israel's expected response to Iran's attack last week will be deadly, exact, and surprising.
"They will not understand what happened or how it happened", according to a statement from his office.
Israel refuses to share
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Israel has so far refused to share its Iran plans with the US. Nor was the US informed in advance about Israel's attack on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut – and the relationship between Biden and Netanyahu is reportedly becoming increasingly frosty.
The newspaper's sources express frustration over Washington being "caught off guard" time and again by Israel's advances in the Middle East.
On October 1, Iran fired around 200 rockets at Israel after several Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel has since repeatedly promised to respond to Iran. When this will happen is currently unknown.
"No Gaza-like action"
Netanyahu has also previously threatened Lebanon with destruction in the same way as Gaza has been subjected to.
I am very clear that there should not be any form of military action in Lebanon that looks like Gaza and leaves a result that resembles Gaza, says Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US State Department, to journalists.
On Wednesday, Israel's and the US's defense ministers, Yoav Gallant and Lloyd Austin, were supposed to meet. But according to reports, Netanyahu has postponed Gallant's US trip – and insisted on a phone call with Biden before the defense minister's departure.
