The US told Israel on Wednesday to scale back its war on Hamas in the "near future," with President Joe Biden urging the country to take more excellent care to protect civilians in Gaza.

During talks in Tel Aviv with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials about the war Israel launched in response to the October 7 attacks, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the push.

Washington has strongly supported Israel's right to self-defense, but rising civilian casualties in Palestinian territory have created a schism between the close allies.

"I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives -- not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful," Biden told reporters after an event at a medical research center near Washington.


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Sullivan, Biden's top national security aide, had earlier pressed Israel on the timing of the war after Israel's defense minister told him that the conflict would last several months.

Sullivan, on the other hand, "did talk about possible transitioning from what we would call high-intensity operations, which is what we're seeing them do now, to lower-intensity operations sometime in the near future," said John Kirby, a spokesman for the company.

"But I don't want to put a timestamp on it."

Kirby said that Washington was "not dictating terms" to Israel but that Sullivan had asked "hard questions" about the course of the offensive, while still backing the country.


"I think we all want it to end as soon as possible," Kirby told reporters, adding that the war "could end today" if Hamas backed down, but "that doesn't look likely right now."