(NewsNation) — As the Israeli government continues its offensive in Gaza, President Joe Biden publicly urged Israel to do more to safeguard Palestinian civilians.

When asked whether he wanted Israel to scale back its assault on the Gaza Strip by the end of the year, Biden said: “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives, not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful.”

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan delivered a similar message meeting with top Israeli officials.

Mark Regev, senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former Israeli ambassador to the U.K., joined “The Hill on NewsNation” to discuss the messaging.

“The innocent population, the civilians of Gaza, they are not are the targets of our operation,” Regev said. “And we’re in a very difficult combat situation trying to do our best to hit the Hamas people, as the President said, and at the same time, to safeguard the civilians.”

Sullivan said in an Israeli TV interview he spoke to Netanyahu about when Israel will shift from high-intensity military operations to a more precise, more targeted phase.

The New York Times reported Biden administration officials want “Israel to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip within weeks and to transition to a more targeted phase” in its war against Hamas.

“I think it’s true that as we move ahead, and we achieve victory on the ground, we can move from high-intensity conflict to low intensity, in the north of the Gaza Strip,” Regev said. “We’re seeing increasing numbers of commerce, terrorists, surrender, we’re seeing their military machine their fall apart, we’re seeing victory. And I think it won’t be too long before we see the same in the southern Gaza Strip, we need to finish the job.”

Sullivan did not provide a specific timeline or elaborate on what such operations would look like, although he said Israel was expected to continue its military campaign for some time.

“It’s most important to do this right,” Regev said. “It’s most important that as we see Hamas now beginning to break in the north, that they break in the south, and that when this is over, the commerce military machine is destroyed. And their political control over Gaza is no longer; those goals have to be met.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Watch the full interview with Mark Regev in the video player at the top of the page.