Israel will continue its war on Hamas even if it loses international support, the Israeli foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Eli Cohen said that a “ceasefire at the current stage is a gift to the terrorist organisation Hamas” and that Israel would keep fighting if deserted by Western allies.

“Israel will continue the war against Hamas with or without international support,” Mr Cohen said.

His remarks came the day after Joe Biden warned Israel was losing international backing because of its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.

The US president also told donors at a fundraising event that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s president, should drop the hardliners in his government and reconsider his opposition to a Palestinian state.

Mr Netanyahu admitted to disagreements with the US on the future of Gaza on Tuesday, saying he would not allow the territory to become “Hamas-stan” or “Fatah-stan”.

The White House has been pushing for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which runs the West Bank, to take control of Gaza once the war is over.

On Tuesday night, the UN overwhelmingly voted in favour of an immediate ceasefire.

The Biden administration has been Israel’s biggest military backer since the war began, sending 14,000 tank shells among a host of weapons and ammunition.

But that support is at risk if Mr Netanyahu continues to largely ignore international warnings over the civilian death toll of the operation, which is put at more than 18,000 people by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s national security advisor, is visiting Israel on Thursday for talks with Mr Netanyahu and his war cabinet.

He will not place new conditions or red lines on the military aid the US provides to Israel, say US sources, but is expected to deliver what one local observer described as “tough love”.

“While Biden said last month that conditioning aid was a ‘worthwhile thought’, the president ultimately believes that a strategy of quiet pressure on Israel to change its tactics has been more effective than threatening to withhold weapons,” CNN quoted a Biden administration official as saying.

Mr Biden faces local pressure to attempt to rein in the Israeli offensive. Young US voters are broadly against Israel’s actions, polling shows, and they will be a key demographic in the 2024 election.