The United States and other top powers need to use their influence with Israel to end the ongoing "carnage" in Gaza, Jordan's Prime Minister, Bisher al Khasawaneh, said on Friday.
Jordan, which shares a border with the West Bank, has been highly critical of Israel's bombardments of Gaza with Khasawaneh saying on Friday that they "ticked all the boxes of war crimes against humanity."
Israel has denied allegations that it has committed war crimes.
Khasawaneh said heavyweight international diplomacy and influence were needed to secure a ceasefire.
"Leadership is needed from our American friends and our American partners, and from various capitals in the world, that can influence the decision-making process in Israel in genuine terms to bring this carnage to an end," the Jordanian prime minister said at an event at the London School of Economics.
He added that public opinion in the West was clear in its concerns about the violence and the pressure the international rules-based system was being put under around issues such as providing aid to the devastated parts of Gaza.
"The main powers are under not only a moral responsibility but also an obligation in the context of preserving the rules-based international system to come and tell the current Israeli government that this needs to stop," he said.
The hope was that then things could "move into a mode that fundamentally resolves this vicious cycle of violence and killing," said Khasawaneh, who had been met with loud protests as he arrived at the event from LSE students and the Arab diaspora.
Israel and its biggest backer the United States appear at odds now, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition government largely rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state even though Washington maintains that the two-state solution is the only feasible way to bring lasting peace to the region.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his fourth trip to the Middle East last week since the October 7 attack by Hamas, took a rough agreement to Israel that its predominately Muslim neighbors would help rehabilitate Gaza after the war and continue economic integration with Israel, but only if it committed to eventually allowing the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
The latest episode of hostilities in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict started when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Israel says more than 130 remain in captivity.
Israel responded to Hamas' assault with a siege, bombardment, and ground invasion of Gaza that has devastated the tiny coastal territory and killed more than 24,000 people, according to Gaza health officials.
US-brokered talks on a Palestinian state collapsed almost a decade ago.
US Democrats push Biden over civilian toll in Israel's Gaza campaign
Additionally, dozens of President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats signed a letter around the same time on Friday urging his administration to reaffirm that the United States strongly opposes "the forced and permanent displacement" of Palestinians from Gaza.
The letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, led by US Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Jamie Raskin, was signed by 60 Democratic House of Representatives members, reflecting concern, especially on the left, over the steep toll on Palestinian civilians of Israel's campaign against Hamas.
"We urge you to continue to reiterate the United States’ firm commitment to this position and ask that you provide clarification regarding certain provisions of the administration's supplemental humanitarian and security funding request," the letter said.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military assistance. Biden has asked Congress to approve an additional $14 billion, part of a sweeping supplemental funding request stalled in Congress as Republicans and Democrats negotiate immigration policy changes.
Separately, a group of Democratic senators said on Friday that 18 Democrats in that chamber support an amendment requiring that any country receive funding in the supplemental use of the money by US law, international humanitarian law, and the law of armed conflict.
Also this week, Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, forced a vote on a resolution that would have frozen security aid to Israel unless the State Department produced a report within 30 days examining whether Israel committed human rights violations in its campaign against Hamas.
Seventy-two senators voted to set the resolution aside, versus 11 who backed it, easily clearing the simple majority needed to kill the resolution in the 100-member chamber.