The United States says it has no idea what the Israeli prime minister is talking about.
The Biden administration on Tuesday rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s accusation that Washington has been “withholding weapons and ammunition” from its close ally in the “recent months.” The Israeli leader hinted that this was hampering his military’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, now focused on the southern city of Rafah.
“We really don’t know what he’s talking about. We just don’t know,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asserting that only one shipment of heavy bombs had been suspended since the start of the war, while billions of Arms dollars continued to flow into Israel.
The White House denied reports canceled a high-level meeting with Israeli officials on Iran after being angered by Netanyahu’s accusation. A White House official told NBC News that details of the meeting have not yet been finalized, “so nothing has been canceled.” But they said meetings with Israeli officials were held during the week “on a range of topics.”
“As we said in yesterday’s briefing, we have no idea what the prime minister is talking about, but that is not a reason to reschedule a meeting,” said the official.
Also Wednesday, the United Nations human rights office said it the laws of war were likely being “consistently violated” in the Israeli military’s ongoing attack on the Palestinian enclave, citing the use of heavy bombs. This new assessment came at a time when some focus was turning north to Israel’s border with Lebanon, where both Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group intensified their exchanges of fire and rhetoric, while the US sought avoid an all-out war.
Bottlenecks
Netanyahu issued his criticism in a video statement posted on X, saying he had discussed the issue of retained weapons with Antony Blinken during the Secretary of State’s recent visit to Israel.
“I said that I deeply appreciated the support that the US has given to Israel since the start of the war,” Netanyahu says in the video, speaking directly to the camera in English. “But I also said something else. I said it is inconceivable that, in recent months, the administration has withheld weapons and ammunition from Israel.”
Netanyahu did not detail exactly which weapons were being withheld, but said Blinken assured him that the US was working to “remove these bottlenecks.”
At a news conference on Tuesday, Blinken said he would not discuss what was said during diplomatic talks with Netanyahu. But he said there was “no change” in the White House’s position.
“Our stance is, once again, to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against these many threats,” he said, while two top Democrats in Congress allowed the US sale of $15 billion worth of F-15s to Israel to move forward after a delay, according to The Associated Press.
Blinken noted that there was “one case,” reported by NBC News in May, in which the U.S. halted a large shipment of offensive weapons due to Israel’s plans to launch a military offensive in Rafah.
At the time, President Joe Biden threatened that the US would suspend further shipments of certain weapons if Israel moved forward with a large-scale attack on Rafah, the city in southern Gaza that was once considered a safe zone.
Washington has maintained that Israel has not crossed its red lines, despite the Israeli military launching an intensified campaign in Rafah with deadly consequences.
Blinken said the government continued to analyze “one shipment” that was held up, but said “everything else is moving normally.”
He emphasized that these processes can take time.
Jean-Pierre, at a press conference, also said that the shipment of heavy bombs was the only one delayed and added that the US was having “constructive discussions” with Israel about the transfer.
Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
The latest confrontation between the two allies came at a time when Netanyahu was facing internal pressure over the fate of the war.
Israel has warned it may soon launch a new offensive along its northern border with Lebanon amid growing hostilities with Hezbollah.
The US and France have been working on a negotiated agreement and Netanyahu met with US envoy Amos Hochstein earlier this week.
But the Israeli military said on Tuesday that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” were “approved and validated”.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah published images it said were captured by surveillance aircraft from parts of Israel, including the sea and air ports of the city of Haifa.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded in a publish in X, saying that Israel was “getting very close to the moment of decision to change the rules of the game with Hezbollah and Lebanon.”
“In a full-scale war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit,” he said.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
