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Dec. 13 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden said he warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza was eroding international support for the war against Hamas. Speaking at a campaign reception at the Salamander D.C. Hotel in Washington, Biden said that while Israel could count on U.S. support, the attacks on Gaza, which have led to the deaths of more than 18,000 Palestinians have raised criticism from world powers.
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"Israel's security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world," he said.
"But they're starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place."
Biden's comments came after Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel had received the "full backing" of the United States, noting that it has blocked "international pressure to stop the war."
The United States over the weekend was the lone nation to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling on Israel to implement an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.
Netanyahu. however, said the two sides were still at odds over the fate of Gaza after the war, with Netanyahu seeking to eliminate any role for the Palestinian Authority, while Biden has supported a two-state solution.
"There is a disagreement when it comes to 'the day after Hamas,'" Netanyahu said. "I hope we will come to an agreement there, too."
Biden on Tuesday asserted that there is "no question about the need to take on Hamas," adding that Israel had "every right" to do so after the militant group launched conducted a bloody surprise attack on Oct. 7 that killed some 1,200 people and saw more than 200 others taken hostage.
He, however, pointed to Israel's cabinet which he referred to as "the most conservative government in Israel's history."
"They not only want to have retribution, which they should for what ... Hamas did, but against all Palestinians. They don't want a two-state solution. They don't want anything having to do with the Palestinians," he said.
Biden said that Netanyahu must make "change" with his government which he said "is making it very difficult for him to move."
"We have an opportunity to unite the region," Biden said. "And they still want to do it. But we have to make sure that Bibi understands that he's got to make some moves to strengthen it, change it, move it. You cannot say there's no Palestinian state at all in the future. And that's going to be the hard part."
Biden also detailed a seemingly recent conversation he had with Netanyahu in which the Israeli leader rebutted the U.S. president's criticism by pointing to civilians killed in the U.S. bombing of Germany and the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"I say, 'Yeah, that's why all these institutions were set up after World War II to see to it that it didn't happen again -- it didn't happen again. Don't make the same mistakes we made at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to be in a war in Afghanistan at 9/11. There was no reason why we had to do some of the things we did.'"
Members of the Biden administration have also in recent days started to openly question Israel's offensive and the growing number of dead Palestinian civilians, with Vice President Kamala Harris stating early this month that "too many innocent Palestinians have been killed."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week also said a "gap" exists between Israel's stated pledge to protect civilian lives and the mounting death toll in Gaza.
