By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel was anxiously anticipating the arrival of desperately needed American ammunition on Thursday after U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration ordered the release of around half the heavy bombs it held up due to worries over civilian casualties during Israel’s military action in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
However, U.S. officials cautioned that the 500-pound bombs now “in the process of being shipped” could still take weeks to arrive.
Worthy News learned that the heavier 2,000-pound bombs in the same shipment have not yet been released.
Biden made the decision only weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded for help in dramatic video footage. “It’s inconceivable that in the past few months, the [Biden] administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.”
Netanyahu added that “Israel, America’s closest ally, is fighting for its life, fighting against Iran, and against our other common enemies.”
Netanyahu said that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told him that the Biden administration is “working day and night” to remove obstacles related to sending weapons to Israel, adding: “I certainly hope that this is the case, and it should be the case.”
The Israeli leader recalled that British Prime Minister Winston “Churchill said to the United States during World War Two: ‘Give us the tools, and we will do the job.’ And I say: Give us the tools, and we will finish the job much faster.”
US RECONSIDERS AID
However, the United States remains reluctant to provide all requested military assistance to Israel, which, besides Hamas, also faces a potential all-out war with Hamas’ ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Biden administration officials said, however, that heavier bombs were not yet delivered due to concern “on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs,” especially about Israel’s Rafah campaign.
“Because of how these shipments are put together, other munitions may sometimes be co-mingled. That’s what happened here with the 500-pound bombs,” a U.S. official told the Times of Israel (TOI) online newspaper.
“Since our main concern had been and remains the potential use of 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza, the 500-pound bombs are moving forward as part of the usual process,” he added.
Israel has said the Israel Defense Forces need the heavy 2,000-pound bombs to “dismantle Hamas’ terror infrastructure,” such as tunnels that have been dug deep beneath Gaza’s civilian areas.
“Other than the one shipment with the 2,000-pound bombs that has been paused and remains paused, weapons shipments continue to move in due course. But we’re not going to get into specifics of every shipment,” a National Security Council spokesman added.
U.S. State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller defended that decision, saying Israel’s intense Rafah operation was not “on the scale of” past IDF operations in Gaza City and Khan Younis. “This so far is a different type of military operation,” he stressed.
MOUNTING DEATH TOLL
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Those figures have been complex to verify independently, and Gaza authorities do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Israel’s government says it launched the Gaza invasion after Hamas killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 other persons in Israel on October 7. Some 120 hostages remain unaccounted for in Gaza, including four kidnapped in 2014 and 2015.
Yet, Israel has expressed concern that the lack of more heavy weapons from the United States could undermine its military efforts to protect the Jewish nation amid mounting dangers.
“The Israeli military is stretched to the point right now where it’s operating in Gaza and in the north and in the West Bank — and that is having a strain on its capabilities,” said Rami Dajani, an expert on Israel and the Palestinian territories at the International Crisis Group (ICG) in a recent assessment.
Israel’s army is one of the world’s best-funded militaries, but it relies on reservists for much of its fighting force.
However, with Hezbollah increasing its attacks against Israel, concerns remained Thursday about the delays in American ammunition deliveries.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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