The United States wants the Israel-Hamas war to end “as soon as possible,” the White House said Thursday, as visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan pressed Israel on moving away from its ferocious military campaign and instead focusing more on pinpoint operations.

Meeting top Israeli officials in Tel Aviv, Sullivan said the Biden administration wants the Israel Defense Forces to wrap up the current phase of “high intensity” fighting in Gaza within weeks, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

Israeli leaders, however, continued to vow that the IDF would push ahead with the military offensive in the Gaza Strip until the terror group’s defeat.

There’s an understanding that the IDF will remain active in Gaza well beyond the end of the current phase, but Sullivan made clear that the US expects a “major rollback” in the intensity of the fighting within weeks, the Israeli official said, confirming reporting by the Walla news site.

Asked for comment on the matter, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says during a briefing that Sullivan “did talk about the 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.”

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