‘Fight with our fingernails’: Israel’s Netanyahu defies US weapons warning

Israeli officials have struck a defiant tone after US President Joe Biden warned that the United States would not provide weapons for a full-scale ground assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are hemmed in with no safe way to leave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in televised remarks on Thursday that Israel, which is heavily reliant on US weapons shipments, would “fight with our fingernails” if necessary.“Hamas [hearts] Biden,” Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right security minister, wrote in a social media post.

The US has consistently provided Israel with military support throughout the campaign in the Gaza Strip, defying growing international and domestic pressure and sidelining concerns over alleged violations of international law by Israeli forces.

Biden, in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, said the US was still committed to Israel’s defence and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms but, if Israeli forces invade Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would pause a shipment of heavy bombs.

The statements appeared to suggest a widening rift between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s government.

“I turn to Israel’s enemies as well as to our best of friends and say – the State of Israel cannot be subdued,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on Thursday.
 
“We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals – we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security.”