Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming the United States is withholding weapons needed for the war in Gaza. In a video released Tuesday, Netanyahu implied the holdup was slowing Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. President Joe Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs to Israel since May over concerns about killing civilians in Gaza. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that those 2,000-pound bombs are the only weapons under review. He told reporters that “Everything else is moving as it normally would.”
Quick Read
Netanyahu Accuses Biden of Delaying Weapons, But US Insists Arms Are Flowing
- Netanyahu’s Claim: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the United States of withholding weapons, slowing Israel’s offensive in Gaza, particularly in Rafah.
- Biden’s Position: President Biden has delayed the delivery of certain heavy bombs due to concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserts that only the 2,000-pound bombs are under review.
- US Response: Blinken confirms that all other arms transfers are proceeding normally, despite Netanyahu’s claims.
- Context: The delay in weapons delivery comes amid growing international criticism of the U.S. support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza, where more than 37,100 people have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
- Historical Background: The conflict was triggered by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 Israelis and led to Israel’s prolonged military offensive in Gaza.
The Associated Press has the story:
Netanyahu accuses Biden of delaying weapons, but US insists arms are flowing
Newslooks- JERUSALEM — (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is claiming the United States is withholding weapons needed for the war in Gaza. In a video released Tuesday, Netanyahu implied the holdup was slowing Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
President Joe Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs to Israel since May over concerns about killing civilians in Gaza. However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that those 2,000-pound bombs are the only weapons under review. He told reporters that “Everything else is moving as it normally would.”
With the Israeli offensive now in its ninth month, international criticism has grown steadily over U.S. support for Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza, and the top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
Israel’s Netanyahu blames Biden for withholding weapons. US officials say that’s not the whole story
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed the United States is withholding weapons and implied this was slowing Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where fighting has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation for Palestinians.
“It’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel,” Netanyahu said, adding, “Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job a lot faster.”
President Joe Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs to Israel since May over concerns about the killing of civilians in Gaza. However, the administration has gone to lengths to avoid any suggestion that Israeli forces have crossed a red line in the deepening Rafah invasion, which would trigger a more sweeping ban on arms transfers.
Netanyahu also claimed that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a recent visit to Israel, said he was working around the clock to end the delays.
Yet Blinken said Tuesday the only pause in sending weapons to Israel was related to those heavy bombs from May.
“We, as you know, are continuing to review one shipment that President Biden has talked about with regard to 2,000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah,” Blinken said at a news conference. “That remains under review. But everything else is moving as it normally would.”
Netanyahu didn’t elaborate on what weapons were being held back, and the Israeli military declined to respond to a request for comment. Ophir Falk, a foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, deferred questions on details to the U.S. government.
Thousands of Israelis protest for a second night demanding early elections and an end to Gaza war
JERUSALEM — Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem for a second night in a row, calling for early elections and an end to Israel’s eight-month war against Hamas.
The protests come a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved Israel’s war Cabinet, a move that consolidates his influence over the trajectory of the war in Gaza. He took the step after his centrist rival, Benny Gantz, withdrew from the three-member Cabinet.
For months, there have been weekly anti-government protests on the streets of Tel Aviv. However, the crowds have grown in recent days after the dissolution of the war Cabinet and the deaths of eight soldiers in a Gaza explosion, one of the deadliest incidents for the Israeli army in months.
Many Israelis, enraged by the protracted war and failure to bring home dozens of hostages still held in Gaza, accuse Netanyahu of putting his political interests above all else. Netanyahu rejects the criticism and says he remains committed to destroying Hamas. The next election isn’t scheduled until 2026.
UNRWA still unable to deliver aid on Israeli-designated safe route for aid, UN official says
JERUSALEM — A U.N. official said Tuesday the agency responsible for most of the aid distribution in Gaza was still unable to use a route the Israeli military said it would secure to help humanitarian goods flow into the besieged territory.
The official said the agency, known as UNRWA, tried to send a convoy of aid trucks down the route Tuesday after canceling its convoy Monday because of persistent law and order concerns. However, Palestinians took goods from most of the trucks along the way and Tuesday’s convoy had to stand down, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss with the media the movement of aid along the newly declared route.
The U.N. official also disputed an Israeli claim that aid groups no longer needed to coordinate their use of the route, saying that coordination was still necessary because the area remains an active combat zone.
International humanitarian officials say Israeli inspections, ongoing fighting and desperate residents taking cargo has paralyzed aid delivery to Gaza’s south. Israel blames the U.N. and other aid agencies for not ramping up their ability to deliver the backlog of aid.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of facilitating aid into the territory, said 62 commercial trucks used the designated corridor on Monday. The commercial trucks are operated separately from U.N.-run aid convoys. COGAT has declined to say who is handling the commercial trucking operations.
The Israeli military announced the protected route earlier this week, with a daily pause in fighting along it during daytime hours. It is meant to relieve a bottleneck of aid that has piled up on the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom, a key goods crossing with Israel. The backlog started weeks ago when Israel invaded the nearby southern city of Rafah, closing the border crossing with Egypt.
According to a map provided by the Israeli military, the intended route heads northeast from the Kerem Shalom crossing, links with a major Gaza thoroughfare to skirt around the center of Rafah before ending at the European Hospital, which is in a mostly agricultural area about 3 miles (5 kilometers) southeast of the war-damaged city Khan Younis.
