By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel was weighing its options Sunday after U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, several sources said.
Israeli government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the development marks the first instance of such a delay since October 7.
U.S. news site Axios first reported news about the delay, while Worthy News also monitored The Jerusalem Post newspaper reporting on the issue.
However, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted one Israeli official as telling Israeli media that Israel was “unaware” of any U.S. decision “to put a hold” on a shipment of ammunition to Israel.
Tel Aviv “is not aware of any U.S. decision regarding stopping or reducing military support to Israel,” the source reportedly said.
However, even a “delay” in crucial military support from Israel’s main ally, confirmed by several sources, was expected to impact Israel’s military as it fights Hamas and other Iran-backed groups in the region.
The delay in the shipment comes amid international pressure on Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza and not to invade Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
REITERATING DETERMINATION
Yet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his nation’s determination to launch military operations in Rafah despite international opposition.
Aid workers say about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering in the city.
However, speaking Sunday on Israel’s annual Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah in Hebrew), he said: “If we do not defend ourselves, no one else will defend us. And if we have to stand alone – we will stand alone.”
He spoke on the day that Israel remembers the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah.
Days earlier, Netanyahu stressed, “We will enter Rafah because we have no other choice. We will destroy the Hamas battalions there; we will complete all the objectives of the war, including the return of all our hostages.”
He referred to October 7, when Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took hundreds hostage in Israel.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that the Biden administration made clear to Israel that the way it will conduct an operation in Rafah will influence U.S. policy towards the Gaza war.
DEMOCRATIC PRESSURE
Biden, who seeks re-election this year, is also facing pressure from within his Democratic Party.
Scores of Democrats in the United States House of Representatives urged him over the weekend to consider halting arms sales to Israel if it does not alter the conduct of its war against Hamas.
A letter signed by 88 Democratic members of Congress and delivered to the White House appealed to Biden to take a firmer stance toward Israel, a staunch ally.
The lawmakers voiced “serious concerns regarding the Israeli government’s conduct of the war in Gaza as it pertains to the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid.”
Israel’s alleged restrictions on U.S.-backed humanitarian aid to Gaza “have contributed to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” the letter said, citing the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Israel has denied wrongdoing and said much of the aid ends up in the hands of Hamas fighters and allies while not reaching innocent Palestinians.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.