US President Joe Biden, who said this week he hoped for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip by Monday, backed off his claims on Thursday, saying a cessation of hostilities “probably won’t happen” by that date, AFP reported.

The United States is also looking into “conflicting accounts” of the killings that occurred during an aid distribution in Gaza on Thursday, the US president told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to the Mexican border.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza during a humanitarian aid distribution that turned into chaos, according to Hamas, which accused Israeli soldiers of opening fire on the hungry crowd.

Israeli sources confirmed that the soldiers, feeling “threatened”, fired live ammunition, but denied that this was the cause of the deaths.

“At the moment we are looking into it. There are two conflicting versions of what happened. I don’t have an answer yet,” he said.

Asked if he thought the event would affect the ceasefire talks, Joe Biden said: “I know it will.”

According to the press release of the White House, on Thursday, the US president also had separate talks with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and with the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.