5 months ago
24
Israeli PM Netanyahu
on Tuesday claimed the US 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.
Prez 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, in a short video, spoke directly to the camera in English as he lobbed sharp criticisms at Biden over "bottlenecks" in arms transfers. "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."
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 US govt.
Netanyahu also claimed that US secretary of state
Antony Blinken
, in a recent visit to Israel, said he was working around the clock to end the delays. However, Blinken said the only pause in sending weapons to Israel was related to those heavy bombs from May, speaking during a presser Tuesday. "We, as you know, are continuing to review one shipment that Prez 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," he said. "That remains under review. But everything else is moving as it normally would." AP
