President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, their first call in over a month amid rising tensions over the war in Gaza.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan described a “business-like” meeting between two leaders with different perspectives about a proposed military operation on the city of Rafah in southwestern Gaza.

“Gaza’s other major cities have largely been destroyed and Israel has not presented us, or the world, with a plan for how or where they would safely move those civilians, let alone feed and house them.”

Biden asked Netanyahu to send a team of military and humanitarian officials to Washington to hear U.S. concerns and discuss an alternative strategy.

Sullivan said the meeting would give U.S. officials the opportunity to lay out an alternative approach “that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt Gaza border” without the need for a major ground invasion.

“It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza, and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan said.

Saved 61% of original text.