WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday over the war on Gaza, calling his approach a “mistake.”

“I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his approach,” Biden told the US-based Spanish language TV network Univision in an interview.

What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a cease-fire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” he said. “There’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now.”

Biden's remarks came after he said in a statement last week that he is "outraged" and "heartbroken" over an Israeli airstrike in Gaza that killed seven people working for the US-based food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK), highlighting that Israel "has not done enough to protect aid workers."

Israel has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians since an Oct. 7 cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas which claimed 1,200 lives.

Much of Gaza's infrastructure has since been destroyed and 1.9 million residents forcibly displaced, leaving them at risk of disease and famine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.