Sullivan says both the US and Israel expect the fighting to eventually subside.

Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, sought on Friday to downplay differences between the United States and Israel over the war against Hamas in Gaza, stressing that both allies expected the pace of fighting to eventually slow.

Israel “was clear from the beginning that this war would be in phases,” Mr. Sulivan told reporters in Tel Aviv, describing the current fighting as high intensity. “But there will be a transition to another phase of this war: a phase focused on attacking the leadership, on intelligence operations,” he said.

Mr. Sullivan said he discussed Thursday with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the conditions and timing for Israel to complete the current phase of its operations. But he declined to specify a time frame, saying neither wanted to “telegraph to the enemy what the plan is.”

Mr. Sullivan spoke on the second day of a subsequent visit to Israel US officials said so that Washington would like to see Israel end its large-scale air and ground attacks on Gaza within weeks and move to a more targeted phase of war. This week, President Biden made some of his most critical statements about the war, saying that Israel’s “random bombings‘ it cost international support.

Mr. Netanyahu and members of Israel’s war cabinet have given no indication that Israel plans to end its large-scale air and ground attacks anytime soon.

After meeting with Mr. Sullivan on Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu thanked the United States for this supply of ammunition and for being vetoed the United Nations resolution for an immediate ceasefire. But he made no mention of a timeline for the transition to a new phase of the war, or of the US push for more targeted attacks. He said only: “We are more determined than ever to keep fighting until Hamas is eliminated – until absolute victory.”

Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said before meeting with Mr. Sullivan on Thursday that achieving Israel’s stated goal of eliminating Hamas in Gaza “will take a certain period of time — it will take more than a few months.”

In the United States, political pressure has increased on the Biden administration to do more to alleviate a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza that is reaching a breaking point for the territory’s 2.2 million civilians. On Thursday, the head of the UN agency that helps the Palestinians said said after visiting southern Gaza that hunger and desperation led people to raid relief trucks and devour the food on the spot.

The war has displaced more than 85 percent of Gaza’s population. Many people there have been pushed to the border area with Egypt and have suffered extreme shortages of food, water and fuel while living under the constant threat of Israeli bombing.

Mr. Netanyahu met on Thursday with Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who said after a recent visit to Gaza that the situation there was “manifestly a moral failure in the light of the international community.” Netanyahu’s office said this in a statement about the meeting in which he had tried to distinguish between Israel’s actions and the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7.

American and Israeli leaders also publicly disagree over a post-war plan for Gaza. Biden administration officials have repeatedly said they believe the Palestinian Authority should be involved, something top Israeli officials have rejected.

Mr. Sullivan said he would visit the Israeli-occupied West Bank later on Friday to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. They will “discuss ongoing efforts to promote stability in the West Bank, including through efforts to combat terrorism, support Palestinian Authority security forces” and “renew and revitalize the Palestinian Authority and through initiatives to hold extremist settlers accountable for violence against Palestinians,” Mr. Sullivan said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said this an interview told The Associated Press before meeting Mr. Sullivan on Friday that it was too early to discuss a two-state solution, which he and his party have been supportive in the past. In a statement after the meeting, Mr. Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial post, said he and Mr. Sullivan had discussed efforts to release the approximately 130 hostages that Israeli officials say are being held captive in Gaza.