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Agence France-Presse

Israel and the United States said they had made progress toward resolving a rift over US weapons shipments after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly accused US President Joe Biden’s administration of slowing down deliveries.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met top officials over three days in Washington as he voiced hope for quietly working through disagreements with Israel’s vital ally, drawing an implicit contrast to Netanyahu’s more confrontational approach.
“During the meetings we made significant progress, obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed,” Gallant said on Wednesday after meeting with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser.
Gallant said the progress was on “a variety of issues” including “the topic of force build-up and munition supply that we must bring to the state of Israel”.

“I would like to thank the US administration and the American public for their enduring support for the state of Israel,” he said.
Netanyahu in recent days has publicly accused the Biden administration of slowing down weapons deliveries to Israel, which has been at war in Gaza since an October 7 attack by Hamas.
US officials have denied the accusations and showed annoyance, months before an election in which Biden’s support for Israel has become a liability with a left flank of his Democratic Party outraged by the heavy death toll among Palestinian civilians.
The United States in early May froze a shipment that included 2,000-pound bombs and Biden warned of a further halt as he pressed Israel not to carry out a wide-scale military assault of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million displaced Palestinians had sought shelter.
A senior US administration official said the United States has sent more than US$6.5 billion in weapons to Israel since October 7, with nearly US$3 billion alone in May.
“This is a massive, massive undertaking and nothing is paused other than one shipment,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The official blamed the rift on misunderstandings of the “complex” US bureaucratic process. He said Gallant’s team and US experts went through “every single case”.
“There was real progress and a mutual understanding of where things stand, of prioritisation of certain cases over others, so that we can make sure that we are moving things in ways that meet the needs of the Israelis,” he said.

Biden – whose approach to Israel has drawn criticism both from progressives and the right – held off on curbing weapon deliveries after Israel carried out what US officials described as comparatively targeted operations in Rafah.
Netanyahu and Gallant have said the most intense phase of the fighting is over – with Israel set to shift forces toward the border with Lebanon after rising skirmishes with the Iranian-backed militant movement Hezbollah.
The US official said Washington remained in “fairly intensive conversations” with Israel, Lebanon and other actors and believed that no side sought a “major escalation”.
Gallant, who met twice in Washington with Amos Hochstein, the US point man between Israel and Lebanon, warned that his military can “inflict massive damage” on Hezbollah if war breaks out.
“We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario,” Gallant told reporters.
US officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have voiced hope that a ceasefire in Gaza could lead to a reduction in tension over Lebanon as well.
Biden on May 31 laid out a plan for a temporary ceasefire and release of hostages, but Hamas came back with further demands.
Despite criticism of the proposal from some of Netanyahu’s far-right allies, Gallant said: “We are all committed to and firmly backing the president’s deal”.
“Hamas must accept it or bear the consequences,” he said.
The Gaza war began with Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, although the army says 42 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,718 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.


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US, Israel cite progress on resolving Gaza war weapons rift

Israeli army tanks in Wadi Gaza, central Gaza Strip, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant at the Pentagon in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

A woman holds the body of her daughter who was killed in an Israeli bombardment in the central Gaza Strip. Photo: AP

US warns Israel-Hezbollah clashes could spark regional war

A firefighter douses a fire after Israeli forces intercepted an aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin (right) meets Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant (left) at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

US urges Israel’s defence minister to avoid Lebanon escalation

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah are threatening to spiral into a full-blown war. Photo: AFP

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant at the US Department of State in Washington. Photo: AFP

An Israeli military vehicle near the Israel-Gaza border. Photo: Reuters

US Secretary of State Blinken urges Middle East leaders to press Hamas to accept Gaza ceasefire

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to reporters at Cairo airport. Photo: AFP

Blinken, left, with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, right, in Cairo, Egypt. Photo: AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, receives Blinken in Jerusalem, Israel on Monday. Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom / GPO / dpa

US military’s U$230 million Gaza aid pier effort hit by repeated setbacks

A key section of the US military-built pier in Gaza, in May. File photo: US Central Command via AP

A US Army landing craft beached in Ashdod, Israel in May after being swept by wind and current from the Gaza pier. Photo: AP

A truck carries humanitarian aid across the pier in May. Photo: US Army via Reuters

News

World

Middle East

Israel’s defence minister held talks with top White House officials after Netanyahu accused the US slowing down weapons deliveries


Israel’s defence minister met top officials over three days in Washington as he voiced hope for quietly working through disagreements with Israel’s vital ally.


Israel

War and conflict