U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview aired Tuesday night that he disagreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group and that Israel should call for an end to the fighting to facilitate humanitarian delivery of humanitarian aid.

Spanish-language network Univision interviewed Biden on April 3, two days after Israel attacked the World Central Kitchen, an aid organization in Gaza, killing seven staff.

Biden said there was no reason not to provide food and medical aid to the people of Gaza and that these efforts “should be done now.”

“I’m calling on the Israelis to call for a ceasefire that allows access to all food and medicine coming into the country for the next six to eight weeks,” Biden said. “I’ve spoken to everyone from Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Egypt. . They’re ready to move in. They’re ready to move this food in.”

The White House said last week that Biden expressed similar sentiments during a call with Netanyahu, stressing that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “unacceptable.”

The United States has also urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire with Israel that would halt fighting in Gaza for six weeks. The proposal would also release some of the approximately 100 hostages held by U.S.-designated terrorist groups in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinians held in its custody.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that it was a “very serious” offer to Hamas in Cairo that “should be accepted.”

“The ball is in Hamas’s court,” Blinken said. “The whole world is watching to see what it does.”

Blinken added that the fact that Hamas has not yet agreed to the terms “says something about its view of the people of Gaza, but it doesn’t matter.”

Hamas said on Tuesday that the proposal did not meet its demands but would consider it.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Tuesday that Britain would not block British companies from selling weapons to Israel.

“The latest assessment leaves our position on export licenses unchanged,” Cameron said in Washington.

“However, let me be clear,” he added, “we remain gravely concerned about humanitarian access to Gaza.”

On October 7, Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. After that, Israel declared war on Hamas. Israel’s subsequent counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 33,000 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

Blinken said the war could have ended months ago if Hamas had “put down its guns, stopped hiding behind civilians and surrendered.”

The top U.S. diplomat said that amid the Israeli attack on the southern city of Rafah, Biden “made it very clear that we are concerned about Israel’s ability to move civilians out of harm’s way to care for them.” Worry”.

Blinken said he didn’t think anything would happen immediately with Rafah, and he didn’t believe anything would happen until U.S. and Israeli officials meet next week.

The United States opposes the planned Rafah attack, and White House officials said Israel has not yet shared a date for the attack with Washington.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that an undisclosed date has been set for an Israeli military incursion into Rafah on the Gaza-Egyptian border. More than a million Palestinians are taking refuge in the area to stay safe. Netanyahu says Israel must launch an offensive to win the war against Hamas.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that deadly starvation in Gaza could accelerate violence and lead to a protracted conflict. The United States continues to urge Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza to feed hungry Palestinians.

“If Israel wants to have a lasting impact, it must meet the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people … and not in a marginal way,” Austin said.

Some international critics believe Israel is committing genocide with indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, with little regard for their safety as it pursues Hamas militants.

But Austin dismissed that argument, saying: “We have no evidence for that.”

Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Information for this report was provided in part by Reuters, The Associated Press and AFP.