President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel spoke on Wednesday for the first time since August, their offices said. The weeks-long silence between the two leaders highlighted their souring relationship as Israel intensified its war in Gaza despite Biden’s calls for de-escalation.

Details of the call were not immediately available. It came after Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, delayed a trip to Washington where he had been expected to discuss Israel’s potential response to Iran’s missile attack last week. Gallant said on Wednesday that he had postponed the trip at the request of Netanyahu, who told him he first wanted to speak with Biden.

Netanyahu and Gallant have been at odds for months over Israel’s strategy in Gaza, and US officials have found the Israeli defence minister to be a key interlocutor as their ties with Netanyahu have become strained.

Their call comes a little over a week after Israel invaded southern Lebanon and targeted Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon.

Hezbollah militants fought ground battles with Israeli forces on Wednesday in southern Lebanon and lobbed more rockets at northern Israeli towns, as the UN warned that hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians had fled their homes because of the escalating hostilities. Israel’s emergency services said two people were killed when a Hezbollah strike hit the northern city of Kiryat Shmona.

A quarter of Lebanon’s territory is now under Israeli military evacuation warnings.