At the Pentagon on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had a conversation with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. This week’s meeting, one of many with senior U.S. officials, takes place in the midst of a diplomatic spat between the United States and Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly called off a high-level delegation’s visit to the country after the United States failed to vote on a cease-fire resolution before the U.N. Security Council, allowing it to pass.

Austin informed Gallant at the conclusion of their discussion that the United States was attempting to make “Israel and the region safer.”

Austin stated that “the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low,” calling the defense of Palestinian civilians a “moral necessity and a strategic imperative.”

President Biden had invited the second Israeli delegation to visit Washington, D.C., to discuss American concerns on Israel’s preparations for an operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, where more than a million Palestinian refugees are being housed.