California Senator Adam Schiff told a CNN interviewer on Tuesday that Israel has not committed genocide, citing the term’s strict legal criteria, which he said the fighting does not meet, while calling the campaign ethnic cleansing.

Schiff said he opposed the administration’s two latest weapons packages for Israel because of overly aggressive operations in Gaza and because widening the fight to involve Iran and Lebanon helps neither Israel nor regional peace. He added that he organized a letter signed by more than 40 fellow Democrats that criticized settler attacks in the West Bank for raising deaths and unrest, and that he rejects planned settlement construction that would block a Palestinian state.

Schiff said Israel may exist as a Jewish country and protect itself, yet that does not authorize overly aggressive tactics that ethnically cleanse people or raze neighborhood sections in Gaza. He urged investigations because war crimes may have occurred.