A US senator has said that it is “vital” for Israel to carry out a more targeted offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to limit civilian casualties.

Chris Murphy, a Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stressed that Israel has every right to defend itself from aggression.“ But “I am concerned that if Israel’s strategy and end goal is to defeat Hamas, then this pace of civilian casualties, which certainly comes with a moral cost, also comes with a strategic cost,” he told AFP in an interview.

“I think that the civilian death toll has been too high, and a more surgical approach would be important and vital,” Murphy said, adding Israel “should be directing the strikes perhaps more so with ground forces than with airstrikes.”