US Insists Arms Are Flowing Despite Netanyahu’s Accusations

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the State Department in Washington, US, June 18, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the State Department in Washington, US, June 18, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
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US Insists Arms Are Flowing Despite Netanyahu’s Accusations

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the State Department in Washington, US, June 18, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the State Department in Washington, US, June 18, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed 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, US 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 US 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. The war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians who are facing widespread hunger.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported that two key Democrats in the US Congress have agreed to support a major arms sale to Israel that includes 50 F-15 fighter jets worth more than $18 billion.

Representative Gregory Meeks and Senator Ben Cardin, it said, have signed off on the deal under heavy pressure from the Biden administration after the two lawmakers had for months held up the sale.



Torrential Rains Trigger Flash Floods in Kashmir, Killing Scores

Buildings damaged in flash floods caused by torrential rains are seen in a remote, mountainous village, in Chositi area, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)
Buildings damaged in flash floods caused by torrential rains are seen in a remote, mountainous village, in Chositi area, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)
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Torrential Rains Trigger Flash Floods in Kashmir, Killing Scores

Buildings damaged in flash floods caused by torrential rains are seen in a remote, mountainous village, in Chositi area, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)
Buildings damaged in flash floods caused by torrential rains are seen in a remote, mountainous village, in Chositi area, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo)

Flash floods caused by torrential rains in a remote village in India-controlled Kashmir have left at least 44 people dead and dozens missing, authorities said Thursday, as rescue teams scouring the devastated Himalayan village brought at least 200 people to safety.

Following a cloudburst in the region’s Chositi village, which triggered floods and landslides, disaster management official Mohammed Irshad estimated that at least 50 people were still missing, with many believed to have been washed away.

India’s deputy minister for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, warned that the disaster “could result in substantial" loss of life.

At least 50 of the rescued people, many of whom were found in a stream under mud and debris, were seriously injured and were being treated in local hospitals, said Susheel Kumar Sharma, a local official.

Chositi is a remote Himalayan village in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district and is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an ongoing annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,500 feet) and about an 8-kilometer (5-mile) trek from the village.

Multiple pilgrims were also feared to be affected by the disaster.

Officials said that the pilgrimage had been suspended and more rescue teams were on the way to the area to strengthen rescue and relief operations. The pilgrimage began on July 25 and was scheduled to end on Sept. 5, The Associated Press reported.

The first responders to the disaster were villagers and local officials who were later joined by police and disaster management officials, as well as personnel from India’s military and paramilitary forces, Sharma said.

Abdul Majeed Bichoo, a local resident and a social activist from a neighboring village, said that he witnessed the bodies of eight people being pulled out from under the mud. Three horses, which were also completely buried alongside them under debris, were “miraculously recovered alive,” he said.

The 75-year-old Bichoo said Chositi village had become a “sight of complete devastation from all sides” following the disaster.

“It was heartbreaking and an unbearable sight. I have not seen this kind of destruction of life and property in my life,” he said.

The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes, officials said. They added that more than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen when the tragedy struck. The flash floods also damaged and washed away many homes, clustered together in the foothills.

Photos and videos circulating on social media showed extensive damage caused in the village with multiple vehicles and homes damaged.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “the situation is being monitored closely” and offered his prayers to “all those affected by the cloudburst and flooding.”

“Rescue and relief operations are underway. Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need,” he said in a social media post.