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.
