EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday made a thinly veiled call for the United States to cut arms supplies to Israel amid heavy civilian casualties in its war in Gaza, Reuters reported.

Borrell recalled that US President Joe Biden said last week that Israel’s response to the Hamas attack on October 7 was “exaggerated”, and US and other Western officials have repeatedly said that too many civilians are being killed in Gaza.

“Well, if you think too many people are being killed, maybe you should give fewer guns to prevent so many people from being killed,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU development aid ministers in Brussels.

“If the international community thinks that this is a massacre, that too many people are being killed, maybe we need to think about providing weapons,” he added.

Borrell also noted that a Dutch court on Monday ordered the Dutch government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over fears they were used in actions that violate international law during the Gaza war.

Borrell said repeated claims by countries that Israel is killing too many civilians in Gaza are contradictory but do nothing concrete to prevent the killing.

Israel insists it is taking significant steps to protect civilians, but is forced to conduct military operations in civilian areas because of the presence of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group responsible for the October 7 attack.

The United States is the largest foreign supplier of arms to Israel. It provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid, from fighter jets to bombs. Washington has so far not heeded any pleas to cut such aid.

Borel criticizes Netanyahu

In his speech in Brussels, Borrell also sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he would not heed calls to do more to protect civilians.

“Everybody goes to Tel Aviv begging, ‘Please don’t do this, protect the civilians, don’t kill so many.’ How much is too much? What is a standard?” said Borrell, annoyed and emotional. “Netanyahu does not listen to anyone.”

Borrell said Netanyahu had called for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from Gaza’s Rafah neighborhood – the last part of the enclave where people have taken refuge – but the veteran Spanish politician questioned how this could be done.

“They want to evacuate? Where? To the moon? Where are these people going to evacuate?” he said.