In Israel, Jake Sullivan Denies Talk of a Rift Over Gaza War

Days after President Biden said Israel was losing support for its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the president’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Friday played down differences between the two allies after meetings with Israel’s top leaders.

“We’re not here to tell anybody, ‘You must do X, you must do Y,’” Mr. Sullivan told reporters in Tel Aviv, the latest emissary from the Biden administration to visit Israel to discuss the war.

His remarks came on the same day that the Israeli military said its soldiers had accidentally killed three Israeli hostages in what it described as an “active combat zone.” During fighting in Shejaiya, a neighborhood in Gaza City, troops “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat,” the military said in a statement. “As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed.”

The military said it realized the error during checks in the area and “suspicion arose over the identities of the deceased.”

The military identified the three Israelis killed as Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim and Samer Talalka; all three were abducted in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led raid that triggered the war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called the killings “an unbearable tragedy” and praised the “brave warriors who are devoted to the sacred mission of returning our hostages, even at the cost of their lives.”

Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israeli military, expressed “deep sorrow” and said the military was investigating the episode.

On Saturday, the slain hostages’ relatives will address the “terrible disaster,” said Liat Bell Sommer, spokeswoman of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents those kidnapped on Oct. 7 and their relatives.

The Israeli military also said on Friday that it had retrieved the bodies of two soldiers and an event planner who were kidnapped on Oct. 7 and held captive in Gaza. The hostages were identified as Cpl. Nik Beiser, 19; Sgt. Ron Sherman, 19; and Elia Toledano, 28. The military did not give details about how the three men died or where their remains were found.

As the Israeli military has come under strong criticism for the widespread use of unguided munitions — “indiscriminate bombing” in the words of Mr. Biden — and the enormous civilian death toll that has resulted, gaps over the prosecution of the war between Israel and the United States, its strongest backer, have become more prominent in recent days.

The Gazan health officials have said that nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began more than two months ago.

On Thursday, Biden administration officials said they wanted Israel to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in Gaza within weeks and transition to more targeted operations against Hamas.

Israeli officials said it would take months of fighting to uproot Hamas from Gaza.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Mr. Sullivan also met with the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday and discussed revamping the unpopular Palestinian government, which Biden administration officials have said they hope will play a role in Gaza after Hamas’s removal.

Mr….