US President Joe Biden met on Thursday with a small group of Muslim American leaders at the White House, two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.
The meeting was expected to focus in part on efforts to combat Islamophobia, one of the sources said.
The White House did not comment on the meeting.
The meeting took place as the President comes under criticism from the Muslim community for not doing more to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Biden was criticized after saying at a press conference on Wednesday he has "no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using" for the death toll in the Gaza Strip.
The Gazan “health ministry” says over 6,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, includes some 2,700 children.
Biden was asked at a White House press conference whether the PA death count means Israel has been ignoring US appeals to reduce civilian deaths in its bombardment of the coastal enclave.
"What they say to me is I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war," Biden replied.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it was "deeply disturbed" by Biden's comments on the Gaza figures, and called on the president to apologize.
"Journalists have confirmed the high number of casualties, and countless videos coming out of Gaza every day show mangled bodies of Palestinian women and children," CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
On Thursday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby explained Biden’s comments and said, “We absolutely know that the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, of course we know that — but what we're saying is that we shouldn't rely on numbers put forth by Hamas and the Ministry of Health.”
He also pushed back against the allegations that Biden’s comments on civilian deaths in Gaza were insensitive and harsh.
“What’s harsh is the way Hamas is using people as human shields, what’s harsh is taking a couple of hundred hostages and leaving families anxious, waiting and worrying to figure out where their loved ones are. What’s harsh is dropping in on a music festival and slaughtering a bunch of young people just trying to enjoy an afternoon — I could go on and on, that's what's harsh,” Kirby said. “And being honest about the fact that there have been civilian casualties, and that there likely will be more, is being honest, because that's what war is, it's brutal, it's ugly, it's messy.”