American officials are urging Israel to "take a breath" and exercise caution before responding to Iran's airstrikes, sources familiar with Middle East policy said.
"Given the amount of risk we are taking, we expect them to let us know before they do anything," one American official told Politico.
Iran launched 300 drones at Israel over the weekend in retaliation for an airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Syria. Iran blamed Israel for the attack and promised retribution for "the Zionist regime's crime."
Iran and Israel have long been at odds, and tensions have been inflamed by the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip. Iran praised Hamas in the aftermath of last year's deadly October 7 attacks on Israel, which it claimed were "victories of the anti-Zionist resistance."
Iran has also provided aid to the Houthis - a Yemeni rebel group that fired ballistic missiles at the Israeli coast. The nation is also allied with Syria - an important source of weapons for Hamas fighters. Israel claimed that the strike on Iran's Syrian embassy was necessary to take out an Iranian general who is crucial to the weapons supply chain.
Iranian leaders announced, over the weekend, that having acted in response to the embassy attacks, they would take no further actions.
"At this point, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention of continuing defensive operations, but if necessary it will not hesitate to protect its legitimate interests against any new aggression," Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated on social media.
On Sunday, American President Joe Biden condemned Iran's retaliatory attacks "in the strongest possible terms."
Biden reiterated the U.S.'s support of Israel and confirmed that he had spoken to Netanyahu by phone. Tensions between the two leaders have been exacerbated in recent weeks, in part due to the killings of seven aid workers - including one American citizen - who were distributing food inside Gaza.
While American forces assisted in diverting the Iranian airstrikes, with minimal damage to Israel, many in the Biden administration are urging Israel to hold back and ensure that their response is "proportional and [brings] this cycle to an end," a U.S. official told Politico.
Sources inside the Israeli government did not give specifics as to their plan going forward. One official, speaking anonymously, told Politico, "Israel reserves the right to defend itself following this unprecedented Iranian aggression."
Many observers of the Middle East are concerned that large-scale retaliation from Israel could plunge the region into a new series of wars - one that would require American troops to join the fight in earnest.
"The plan was always to help [Israel] defend themselves to the max to limit the damage so that they didn't feel compelled to come back with another overwhelming response and we can de-escalate and be done," a different American source told Politico.
