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A Palestinian American doctor walked out of a meeting at the White House on Tuesday evening over President Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Thaer Ahmad, an emergency medicine physician with recent experience in Gaza, attended what was initially planned as a Ramadan celebration. In a statement to the press, Ahmad said, “I was able to share that with the president and let him know that out of respect for my community, out of respect for all of the people who have suffered and who have been killed in the process, I need to walk out of the meeting. And I want to walk out with decision-makers and let them know what it feels like for somebody to say something and then walk away from them and not hear them out, not hear their response.”

When asked how President Biden responded to Ahmad’s statement that he would leave, Ahmad said, “He actually said that he understood, and I walked away.”

According to attendees, the White House did not have food at the meeting, as in previous years. This was at the attendees’ request, which Ahmad said, “It made no sense for us to sort of break bread while talking about a famine taking place.” The White House said that following the meeting, President Biden hosted “a small breaking of the fast, prayer, and Iftar with a number of senior Muslim Admin officials.”

This all comes as there is growing dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict. In the last week, multiple US lawmakers (mainly from the Democratic party) have called on the Biden administration to take a firmer stance with Israel. Some lawmakers have called for the US to condition military aid sent to Israel, while others have called for the US to halt all military aid immediately.