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US, Israel Move to Resolve Weapons Shipment Dispute as Attention Turns to Looming Hezbollah Conflict
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as they make brief statements to the media at The Kirya, Israel’s Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 16, 2023. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
The United States and Israel have taken steps to resolve some of the issues hampering weapons shipments from the US to the Jewish state, but at least one bomb delivery is still being blocked as the world’s focus increasingly shifts from Gaza to a potential Israeli conflict with the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant arrived in Washington this week to meet with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, escalating tensions with Hezbollah, and potentially resuming all scheduled weapons transfers to the Jewish state.
US arms transfers to Israel have slowed in recent months as international scrutiny over the Jewish state’s war in Gaza has intensified. The Biden administration paused a shipment of 2,000 lb bombs to Israel in an attempt to discourage the country from conducting extensive military operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, a step that Israel insists is necessary to complete the dismantling of the remaining Hamas battalions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu further complicated matters after he released a video publicly accusing the Biden administration of withholding arms shipments and indicating he was promised by Blinken that Washington would resolve the delays. The video incensed the White House, throwing a wrench in ongoing negotiations with Israel to resume weapons transfers. The video also ignited a feud between Netanyahu and Gallant, with the defense minister’s aides claiming the prime minister released the video to sabotage Gallant’s upcoming meeting with US officials.
Resuming weapons shipments could prove critical for Israel as it prepares to potentially ramp up military operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, like Hamas, is an Islamist terrorist organization backed by Iran.
In Israel’s north, Hezbollah terrorists have been firing rockets at Israel daily from southern Lebanon since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, leading Israeli forces to strike back. Tensions have been escalating between both sides, fueling concerns that the conflict in Gaza — the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas to Israel’s south — could escalate into a regional conflict.
More than 80,000 Israelis have evacuated Israel’s north and been unable to return to their homes. The majority of those spent the past eight months residing in hotels in safer areas of the country.
While in Washington, DC, Gallant warned on Wednesday that the Jewish state is prepared to take Lebanon “back to the stone age” if it does not cease its attacks.
“We do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario,” Gallant told reporters. “Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched.”
The Biden administration has attempted to ease tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, wishing not see the conflict escalate into a full-scale war. Austin met with Gallant on Tuesday to collaborate on how to “de-escalate tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border.” The US defense chief warned that intensifying provocations against Israel could “threaten to drag the Israeli and Lebanese people into a war that neither of them wants, and that such a war would be catastrophic for Lebanon and it would be devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians.”
Hezbollah wields significant political and military influence across Hezbollah.
The post US, Israel Move to Resolve Weapons Shipment Dispute as Attention Turns to Looming Hezbollah Conflict first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Readies for a Nationwide Strike on Sunday
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on for a general strike to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas for the release of their loved ones and a ceasefire. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
The October 7 Council and other groups representing bereaved families of hostages and soldiers who fell since the start of the war declared they were “shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages.”
While many businesses said they would join the strike, Israel’s largest labor federation, the Histadrut, has declined to participate.
Some of the country’s top educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, declared their support for the strike.
“We, the members of the university’s leadership, deans, and department heads, hereby announce that on Sunday, each and every one of us will participate in a personal strike as a profound expression of solidarity with the hostage families,” the Hebrew University’s deal wrote to students.
The day will begin at 6:29 AM, to commemorate the start of the October 7 attack, with the first installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Further demonstrations are planned at dozens of traffic intersections.
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Netanyahu ‘Has Become a Problem,’Says Danish PM as She Calls for Russia-Style Sanctions Against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen said Saturday, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen told Danish media, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far” and lashing out at the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and announced new homes in the West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said, specifying she referred to “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole.”
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect.”
The devastating war in Gaza began almost two years ago, with an incursion into Israel of thousands of Palestinian armed jihadists, who perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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As Alaska Summit Ends With No Apparent Progress, Zelensky to Meet Trump on Monday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – After US President Donald Trump hailed the “great progress” made during a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was set to meet Trump on Monday at the White House.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference after the meeting.
Many observers noted, however, that the subsequent press conference was a relatively muted affair compared to the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet welcome, and the summit produced no tangible progress.
Trump and Putin spoke briefly, with neither taking questions, and offered general statements about an “understanding” and “progress.”
Putin, who spoke first, agreed with Trump’s long-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Trump been president instead of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said “many points were agreed to” and that “just a very few” issues were left to resolve, offering no specifics and making no reference to the ceasefire he’s been seeking.