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‘We have what we need’: Israel downplays Biden’s threat of freezing arms supplies

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell near the Gaza border toward the besieged strip on May 8, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

The Israeli military has downplayed a recent threat issued by US President Joe Biden of freezing American arms supplies to the occupying regime if the latter went ahead with a full-scale ground invasion of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military “has munitions for the operations that are planned, and also for the operation in Rafah. We have what we need,” military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Thursday.

Joe Biden voiced the threat in remarks to CNN on Wednesday, saying, "If they go into Rafah…we're not gonna supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used."

The regime has vowed for weeks to launch a ground incursion against the city.

The Israeli military has already gone ahead with waging limited ground attacks against Rafah and seized the nearby crossing into Egypt, which is the main corridor for the transfer of aid into besieged Gaza.

Some 1.5 million Palestinians are seeking refuge in the city after fleeing a war that the regime has been waging against the entire Gaza since October 7. At least 34.904 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far during the war, which began following al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

‘US military support unprecedented, differences resolvable’

Hagari, meanwhile, thanked the United States for its extraordinary military support for the regime so far during the war that has seen Washington providing Tel Aviv with thousands of tons of military equipment.

"The United States has provided so far unprecedented security assistance…during the war,” he said.

The Israeli official also affirmed existence of favorable ongoing cooperation between the regime’s military and the US Central Command, which is responsible for the American military operations in West Asia among some other regions.

“What is equally important is the military assistance and cooperation between” the American Central Command and the Israeli military, he said.

He added that Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israeli military, speaks with the head of CENTCOM Michael Kurilla "every day" to discuss "war efforts" and "challenges in the region." 

“Even when we have differences between us, we resolve them in closed rooms.”


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