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A statement issued by the White House after the call said that Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers”.

Biden told Netanyahu that “US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps”.

He also underscored the need for an immediate ceasefire and “urged the prime minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home”.

The intense phone call was the first time Biden has attempted to leverage US aid to influence Israel’s military operations, which have so far led to tens of thousands of innocent people being killed, wounded or starved.

Immediately after the statement was released, Secretary of State Antony Blinken doubled down, telling reporters that while the president had reaffirmed US support for Israel in fighting Hamas, “right now, there is no higher priority in Gaza than protecting civilians, surging humanitarian assistance, and ensuring the security of those who provide it”.

“Israel must meet this moment,” Blinken said.

The call between Biden and Netanyahu came three days after aid workers travelling in a convoy – including Australian Zomi Frankcom and one American citizen – were killed by an Israeli strike that the military claimed had been a “mistake” and the result of a “misidentification”.

Biden is said to have been privately enraged by the incident, and publicly noted it was not isolated, given nearly 200 aid workers have been killed since the war began on October 7.

But the call also came as the president faced growing pressure to limit the supply of weapons to Israel, and as members of his own ranks demanded that the US stop being complicit in the murder of innocent people in Gaza.

Former US president Donald Trump also weighed in on Thursday, declaring that Israel was “losing the PR war” and needed to “finish what it started”.

“You’ve got to get it over with, and you have to get back to normalcy,” Trump said on the conservative podcast The Hugh Hewitt Show.

“You have to have a victory, and it’s taking a long time.”

Since the war began on October 7, the US has reportedly approved and delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid.

According to the Washington Post, the Biden administration approved the transfer of thousands more bombs to Israel on the same day Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues were killed.

Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders had the strongest condemnation this week, declaring that “the United States should not be giving another nickel to Israel to continue this terrible war against the Palestinian people”.

“It is horrible, it is inexcusable, and it’s got to end right now – and the United States cannot continue to be complicit in the horror that is taking place now,” Sanders, who is Jewish, told MSNBC.

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But in another sign of the discontent within the Democratic Party, some of Israel’s biggest defenders are now also shifting their views.

Among them is Biden ally Chris Coons, who said on Thursday that the US should condition its aid – particularly if Israel expands its operations in Rafah.

“If Benjamin Netanyahu were to order the IDF into Rafah at scale … and make no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, I would vote to condition aid to Israel,” the Democrat Senator told CNN. “I’ve never said that before.”

Biden’s phone call with Netanyahu is significant because the president, a long-time supporter of Israel, said immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7 that American support for Israel would be “rock solid” and “unwavering”.

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Asked about this today, National Security Council co-ordinator John Kirby said America’s support of Israel’s right to defend itself was still “iron-clad”.

However, “the manner in which they’re defending themselves against Hamas needs to change,” he added.

“On October 7, there wasn’t near famine in Gaza. On October 7, there wasn’t a diminution of trucks getting into Gaza. On October 7, we didn’t see thousands and thousands of innocent people killed.”

While the White House stopped short of directly saying the president would halt arms supplies or impose conditions for their use, Biden made clear in the 30-minute call that he wanted corrective action by Israel as soon as possible.