An unnamed senior Israeli official told ABC News on Friday that the U.S. Biden administration has slowed the pace of military deliveries to Israel, something that Washington flatly denies.
The unverified report comes amid growing political disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem regarding the ongoing war in Gaza. While the United States supports Israel's goal of dismantling the terrorist organization Hamas, Washington has increasingly expressed concern about the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has a robust domestic military industry, however, it relies on U.S. deliveries of rockets and ammunition for its American-produced weapons systems.
The unnamed Israeli official noted that U.S. military deliveries "were coming very fast" following the Hamas Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, when approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists and their allies massacred at least 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children. However, the Israeli official stated, "We are now finding that it's very slow."
Israel Defense Forces is reportedly running out of 120 mm tank shells, 155 mm artillery shells, and other unspecified equipment.
It is unclear whether the current slowdown of American military deliveries to Israel is due to unintended bureaucracy or a deliberate political decision by the Biden administration. However, American officials denied any slowdown of military aid to Israel.
On the contrary, White House National Security spokesman John Kirby claimed that Washington intended to speed up deliveries to Israel.
"We continue to support Israel with their self-defense needs. That's not going to change, and we have been very, very direct about that," Kirby told ABC News. It is, however, unclear whether this refers only to defensive weapons like the aerial defense Iron Dome system or also includes offensive weaponry needed to defeat Hamas.
The U.S. has expressed concerns about the growing number of civilian casualties in Gaza. While Washington recognizes the complexities in the war that the Israeli military faces in Gaza, it nevertheless has urged the IDF to do more to protect Gazan civilian lives.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant recently signed a letter on behalf of Israel, reassuring Washington that the IDF is using American-made weapons in Gaza in accordance with international law.
The Biden administration has been particularly concerned about Israel's plan to dismantle Hamas' remaining forces in the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah, due to the presence of over one million Gazan civilians.
During a recent MSNBC interview, U.S. President Joe Biden sent mixed signals in his commitment to Israel and position on Rafah.
"It is a red line, but I'm never going to leave Israel," the U.S. president said. "The defense of Israel is still critical, so there's no red line [where] I'm going to cut off all weapons so they don't have the Iron Dome to protect them," Biden stated, leaving the question on delivery of offensive military systems like tank shells unanswered.
"You cannot have another 30,000 Palestinians dead as a consequence of going after them [Hamas]," added Biden, referring to the Gaza death toll as reported by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, a number that has not been verified by independent sources.
The prominent U.S. statistics professor Prof. Abraham Wyner UPenn Wharton's Department of Statistics and Data Science recently explained in a detailed article how the terrorist organization Hamas manipulates and distorts the Gazan death toll in order to increase international pressure on Israel to end the war before Hamas is dismantled and defeated.
Republished with permission from All Israel News.