NBC News reported today (Monday), quoting a senior American official accompanying Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on his tour of the Middle East, that Washington expects the war in the Gaza Strip to end within weeks.

The American official said that the Secretary of State will inform Israel in meetings this week of the need to end its war “as soon as possible” and to use more precise targeting tools to reduce civilian casualties, according to the Arab World News Agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant said in a joint statement earlier today that the war will not stop in the Gaza Strip or on the border with Lebanon anytime soon, and will continue “for many months.”

Blinken is on a regional tour that includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and Egypt, to discuss the war in the Gaza Strip.