A senior Israeli official told ABC News that the United States has begun slow-walking some military aid to Israel, an assertion senior US officials denied was the case.
The senior Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the US military aid shipments at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war "were coming very fast," but "we are now finding that it's very slow,” which has put pressure on Israel as it attempts to destroy Hamas in Gaza.
The official said he was not sure what the cause was, but that Israel was fully aware of the United States' frustration with the war, and that Israel needed to do more to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
When asked about the allegation, several US officials said there was no change in US policy or any deliberate delay in delivering previously promised aid or weapons sales to Israel.
Asked about a potential slow-walk in weapons aid or sales, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the US is continuing to provide Israel with what it needs.
"I'm not gonna get into the timeline for every individual system that's being provided," he told ABC News. "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."
Earlier this week, US officials told Politico that President Joe Biden will consider conditioning military aid to Israel if the country moves forward with a large-scale invasion of Rafah.
While Biden has not made any decision on limiting future weapons transfers, officials said that he very well might do so if Israel launches a new operation.
“It’s something he’s definitely thought about,” one of the officials told Politico.
So far, most of the calls to condition US aid to Israel have come from Senator Bernie Sanders, who has acknowledged that Hamas started the war but also claimed that Israel "does not have the right to wage almost total warfare against the Palestinian people."
US Vice President Kamala Harris recently made clear that the US would not create any conditions for the aid it gives to Israel. However, Politico has previously reported that Biden, Harris and other administration officials have grown increasingly willing to criticize Israel’s approach to battling Hamas.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)
