Washington
New tensions emerged this week between President Joe Biden's administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Netanyahu's criticism of U.S. arms sales, which the White House called “frustrating” and “disappointing” on Thursday.
The controversy began when Netanyahu posted a video on social media earlier this week in which he claimed that the US administration, Israel's main military backer, has been “withholding arms and ammunition” from Israel in recent months.
“Given the amount of assistance we have provided and continue to provide, these comments are extremely disappointing to us and certainly upsetting,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“No other country is doing more to help Israel defend itself against the threat of Hamas and, frankly, other threats that it faces in the region,” Kirby said.
A day earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “We have no idea what he's talking about.”
Jean-Pierre said that apart from “certain munitions shipments”, “there are no other suspensions. None at all.”
She was referring to a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that Washington has said it is considering amid concerns they could be used in populated areas.
Biden-Netanyahu tensions
But Prime Minister Netanyahu appeared to harden his stance in a statement late on Thursday, saying he was “prepared to face personal attacks if Israel accepts from the United States the ammunition it needs in its war for survival.”
The altercation is not the first between Israel's top government and the Biden administration since the start of the Gaza war, which began with an unprecedented Hamas attack in October.
Biden has previously voiced strong opposition to Israel's large-scale operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, home to more than one million civilians, and warned that he would cut off supplies of certain weapons if his warnings were not heeded.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also warned Israel on Thursday not to escalate tensions in Lebanon, as Hezbollah militants fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel, raising fears of an escalating regional war.
In a statement, the State Department said that during his meetings with Israeli officials in Washington, Secretary Blinken “stressed the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic solution that allows Israeli and Lebanese families to return home.”
The Gaza war is a particularly thorny issue for the 81-year-old Biden, who is seeking a second term as president this year.
The humanitarian catastrophe and rising death toll in Gaza have drawn sharp criticism of the president from progressive wing of Biden's party, putting him under pressure to balance long-standing U.S. policy toward Israel.
Israel launched its war on Gaza in retaliation for an Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,190 people, most of them civilians, according to official Israeli figures.
Hamas has taken 251 hostages, of which 116 remain in Gaza, while the military says 41 have been killed.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 37,430 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip's health ministry.
