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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his claims that President Biden is holding back arms shipments to Israel amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Netanyahu alleged on Sunday that Israel experienced a “dramatic drop” in US arms shipments, a statement the Biden administration has firmly denied. During the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu defended his decision to release a video criticizing the US for delaying weapons, stating that private efforts to resolve the issue had failed. He said, “For many weeks, we appealed to our American friends to speed up the shipments. We did it time and time again. We did this at the senior echelons, and at all levels, and I want to emphasize — we did it in private chambers. We got all kinds of explanations, but we didn’t get one thing: The basic situation didn’t change.”
Despite these claims, the White House has maintained that it only withheld one shipment of heavy bombs over concerns about their use in Rafah, Gaza, and that all other arms transfers have continued normally. White House officials responded to Netanyahu’s latest remarks by emphasizing upcoming discussions with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, rather than engaging in a political back-and-forth.
Previously, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby openly expressed frustration with Netanyahu’s previous criticism, saying, “It was perplexing, to say the least, certainly disappointing, especially given that no other country is doing more to help Israel defend itself against the threat by Hamas. The idea that we had somehow stopped helping Israel with their self-defense needs is absolutely not accurate.” He added that Netanyahu’s comments were “vexing and disappointing.”
The disagreement coincides with Netanyahu’s reluctance to endorse a Biden-backed ceasefire deal aimed at ending the fighting and releasing hostages held by Hamas.
