(Web Desk) - In the days after the Oct. 7 attack against Israel, President Biden had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to nix a planned preemptive strike against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, saying that the move would likely ignite a regional war, according to a report.
The attack was allegedly planned using intelligence obtained by Israel in which Hezbollah forces were getting ready to cross the border, but U.S. Intelligence officials deemed the information unreliable, according to The Wall Street Journal.
On Oct. 11, Israeli warplanes were already in the air and awaiting orders to launch the strike when Biden spoke with Netanyahu and asked him to stand down and consider the consequences, people familiar with the conversation said to the newspaper.
American officials first learned of plans for the attack after Israeli officials informed them that they believed Hezbollah was planning an attack of their own and had asked for support from the U.S.
The strike never went ahead. The conversation between the two world leaders is the latest in a long strong of efforts from the White House since the start of the Gaza War to prevent any expansion of the fighting that could lead to the U.S. being drawn into a larger conflict.
The Journal reports that a primary focus of the Biden Administration since the war began has been to quell any escalation along Israel's northern border with Lebanon where Israeli Defense Forces exchange gunfire with Hezbollah and Palestinian militants.
After Hamas' attack on Israel, the U.S. sent two aircraft carriers and a nuclear submarine to the eastern Mediterranean, along with creating a naval task force stationed in the Red Sea to deal with a series of attacks from Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen.