White House hits back at Israel's claims of weapons delays - BBC

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Holly Honderich and Tom Bateman

BBC News, Washington

1 hour ago

The White House has pushed back against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claims that the US is withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel, hours after he lashed out at the Biden administration.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed an ongoing pause remained on one particular shipment of bombs, echoing comments from Secretary of State Antony Blinken hours beforehand, but she insisted no other weapons were being withheld.

"We genuinely do not know what he's talking about," Ms Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

In a video in English earlier on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu rebuked the US, saying he had told Mr Blinken it was “inconceivable” that weapons and ammunition had been withheld "in the past few months".

"America’s closest ally, fighting for its life," he said of Israel.

In the video, Mr Netanyahu said he had spoken to Mr Blinken about delays and that the secretary of state had assured him he was "working day and night to remove the bottlenecks".

At a press conference in Washington, Mr Blinken confirmed the administration was continuing to hold back consignment of bombs from Israel over concerns about their use in urban areas of Gaza, but that the issue remained under review.

He faced repeated questions from reporters over exactly what he had told Mr Netanyahu, but he wouldn't be drawn on what he called a diplomatic conversation.

Last month, a senior administration official confirmed to the BBC that the delivery of thousands of 2000lb and other bombs had been paused - the first delay of US munitions to Israel.

The US is by far Israel's biggest source of weapons and ammunition. By law, it provides Israel with $3.8bn (£3bn) of military aid each year. The US Congress last month passed a bill providing a further $14bn of military support.

And the Biden administration will move forward with another major arms sale to Israel that includes 50 F-15 fighter jets worth more than $18bn, US media report, after two key Democratic holdouts signed off.

The deal, first reported by the Washington Post, had been stalled by the objections of Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland and congressman Gregory Meeks of New York.

"Any issues or concerns Chair Cardin had were addressed through our ongoing consultations with the Administration," said a spokesman for Senator Cardin in a statement to the BBC.

"That’s why he felt it appropriate to allow this case to move forward."

Senator Cardin, a vocal supporter of Israel and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, did not express those concerns publicly.

Mr Meeks, whose office has been contacted for comment, had been outspoken about his opposition to the sale, citing concerns over Israel's conduct in its war against Hamas. Mr Meeks is the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"I don't want the kinds of weapons that Israel has to be utilised, to have more death," he said in an interview with CNN in April.

But after months of delay, and mounting pressure from the Biden administration, both Mr Cardin and Mr Meeks ultimately signed off on the transaction several weeks ago, the Post reported.

In his statement, Senator Cardin's spokesman Eric Harris said the sale to Israel had gone through the "regular review process".

Once the consultation process with Congress is complete, the state department can take the next step of officially notifying Congress of the sale.

If approved, it would be one of the largest arms transactions with Israel since the war began in October.

President Joe Biden has faced growing concerns within his own party over Israel's handling of the war, and the United States' continued military support.

Republicans meanwhile have continued to criticise the delay of the shipment of weapons to Israel. Congressman Russell Fry of South Carolina last month called the weapons holdup "reprehensible", writing on X that "the United States must stand with Israel. Period".

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 37,340 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Related Topics

• Israel-Gaza war
• United States

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2024-06-18 20:41:19Z
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Vladimir Putin heads to North Korea with war and weapons on the agenda - BBC

Firstly, Putin needs ammunition to sustain his war machine in Ukraine.

“We have to remember that he started this relationship based upon his need for artillery, ammunition and rockets for his invasion of Ukraine and he will retain these needs for some time,” says Bruce Bennett, a senior defence analyst at RAND Corp in the US.

Jeffrey Lewis, a North Korea expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, agrees saying: “Russia gets lots of cheap weapons, including ballistic missiles."

Beyond defence, strengthening relations with North Korea also plays into Putin’s efforts to undermine international sanctions, analysts say.

“Strengthening ties with its old Cold War partner allows Russia to undermine the international sanctions regime, counter any suggestion that the US and its allies have been able to isolate Moscow, and also add to concerns in Washington that it may have to deal with a materially strengthened North Korea,” says John Nilsson-Wright, head of the Japan and Koreas Programme at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics.

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2024-06-18 06:26:48Z
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North Korea troop ‘casualties’ reported after landmine explosions in DMZ - The Guardian

North Korea’s military has suffered “multiple casualties” after landmines exploded in the heavily armed border that separates the country from South Korea, local media reported on Tuesday.

The explosions in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) were reported just hours before the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was due to visit the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, for the first time since 2000.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency referred to “casualties” caused by landmine explosions, while the NK News website quoted the military as saying several soldiers had been “maimed or killed”.

In what appears to be an unrelated incident, dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border on Tuesday for the second time in less than two weeks, but retreated after warning shots were fired, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The DMZ has separated the two Koreas since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, but not a peace treaty.

The 4km (2.5-mile) wide strip of land bisecting the peninsula is strewn with landmines designed to deter enemy troops from making incursions that could upset the delicate decades-old standoff along the border.

The North Korean troops injured in the landmine explosions were working on creating “barren land” and laying additional mines along the border, an official from the JCS said, without revealing the date of the incident.

The soldiers had “suffering multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents during their work,” it said.

On Tuesday, an estimated 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers carrying tools crossed the Military Demarcation Line dividing the two countries on Tuesday morning, Yonhap said, citing the JCS.

The soldiers left after forces in the South fired warning shots and broadcast warnings via loudspeakers set up along the border, the JCS said, adding that the brief incursion appeared to have been accidental.

The incidents come at a time of rising tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul.

In recent weeks, the North has sent more than 1,000 balloons laden with rubbish to the South, where activists reciprocated with those containing anti-North Korean leaflets and flash drives loaded with K-pop and TV dramas.

The South also suspended a 2018 agreement designed to reduce cross-border tensions and resumed pop music and propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers set up along the 155-mile long border.

Yonhap quoted a JCS official as saying that the border work had been carried out in locations where North Koreans had fled to the South.

“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the JCS official said.

North Korea has deployed hundreds of troops to lay mines, build walls and reinforce roads in recent weeks, Yonhap said. Earlier this month, the South fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed an overgrown section of the border, apparently by accident.

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2024-06-18 05:14:00Z
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Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea as he seeks further military support - The Guardian

Vladimir Putin will travel to North Korea this week as he seeks continued military support for the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine from one of the world’s most isolated nations.

In his first visit to North Korea since 2000, Putin will meet Kim Jong-un for one-on-one talks in Pyongyang as the two leaders pledge to expand their security and economic cooperation in defiance of western sanctions against both countries.

Putin is expected to arrive in North Korea on Tuesday with a large entourage of government ministers and advisers, including those responsible for the Russian military and weapons procurement. They include his new defence minister, Andrey Belousov, and Denis Manturov, his top deputy prime minister overseeing the defence sector.

“The program is very full,” said Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. “A considerable amount of time will be dedicated to informal contacts between the leaders, as these negotiations … will contain the most important and most sensitive questions.”

It is a rare trip abroad for Putin, who has limited his international travel to friendly countries since he launched the full-scale invasion and became the subject of an international criminal court arrest warrant for the mass deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

North Korea has supplied Russia with millions of rounds of Soviet-era artillery munitions as a crucial lifeline to prop up the Russian military campaign in Ukraine. The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, last month told lawmakers that the supplies of munitions and missiles, as well as Iranian drones, had helped the Russian military “get back up on their feet”.

North Korea has also provided Russia with ballistic missiles and electronic equipment used in the war effort.

In return, Russia is believed to have provided aid to North Korea’s satellite programme, as well as other arms, economic aid and diplomatic support. Kim visited Russia’s far east last year, meeting Putin in Vladivostok during a trip where he visited a factory producing modern fighter jets and the Vostochny cosmodrome.

The White House said on Monday that Washington is apprehensive over closer ties between Russia and North Korea.

“We’re not concerned about the trip [by Putin],” national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters Monday. “What we are concerned about is the deepening relationship between these two countries.”

Kirby said the worry was not just that “North Korean ballistic missiles are still being used to hit Ukrainian targets, but because there could be some reciprocity here that could affect security on the Korean peninsula”.

South Korean defence minister Shin Wonsik said in an interview with Bloomberg News that Seoul had identified at least 10,000 shipping containers suspected to be containing artillery ammunition and other weapons sent from North Korea to Russia.

Those containers could contain as much as 4.8m shells, Shin said. EU countries have struggled to meet the goal of supplying 1m artillery shells to Ukraine over the past year, sending just half of that amount.

“Putin is expected to seek closer security cooperation with North Korea, especially military supplies such as artillery shells that are necessary to seize a chance to win,” Shin told Bloomberg News.

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2024-06-17 20:31:00Z
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Greece missing tourists - updates: Body of American found on island with more missing - The Independent

Michael Mosley's friend pays tribute to 'one of the most important broadcasters'

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An American reported missing on a Greek island was found dead on the beach on Sunday, officials said, becoming the third visitor to die amid a “history making” heatwave across the Meditteranean.

The 55-year-old tourist, whose identity has not yet been released, vanished on the small island of Mathraki on June 11, when temperatures reached as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

“There is a common pattern − they all went for a hike amid high temperatures,” Petros Vassilakis, the police spokesman for the Southern Aegean, told Reuters.

It came as two French women, aged 64 and 73, have been missing since Friday on the island of Sikinos, while retired Los Angeles County deputy sheriff Albert Calibet has not been seen on Amorgos since Tuesday.

Have you been affected by this? Email barney.davis.ind@independent.co.uk

1718619236

Temperatures to remain high – albeit down from extreme highs seen last week

Temperatures in many parts of Greece are expected to peak in the mid to high 30s this week, as searches continue for tourists who have gone missing while walking.

In Rhodes, the mercury will hit 36C this week, according to the Met Office.

While falling from the highs of 44C seen on Thursday, Crete is expected to see highs of 30C and 31C on Monday and Tuesday, before falling some later in the week.

Santorini, close to Sikinos, where rescuers are searching for two French women missing since Friday, will see temperatures hit close to 30C over the coming days.

Chris Stevenson17 June 2024 11:13

1718652655

Girlfriend worried sick as former deputy still missing on Amorgos

The search continues for a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who has been missing since Tuesday on the Greek Island of Amorgos.

59-year-old Albert Calibet of Hermosa Beach, California, was reported missing when he failed to return from a hike six days ago.

Drone video obtained by Los Angeles station KABC showed rescue crews searching the rocky terrain where they believed Calibet was hiking.

“We’re sick to our stomachs, knowing he’s out there somewhere,” Calibet’s girlfriend, Debbie Leshane, told KABC.

Eric Calibet, 59, had been vacationing on the island but was reported missing by a friend on Tuesday afternoon (Municipality of Amorgos)

Barney Davis17 June 2024 20:30

1718649055

Last sighting of American tourist on isolated island of Mathraki

The 55-year-old American was last seen on Tuesday at a tavern in Mathraki, west of Corfu Island, where he was staying with a friend, investigators told ABC News.

The friend called the police after he returned home Thursday and found the door of the house open, the lights on, and the air conditioning unit running, but there was no sign of the missing American or his identification and travel documents, according to investigators.

Mathraki has no police station or coast guard so ;aw enforcement officers from Corfu were called in to assist with the investigation.

A coroner was headed to the island Sunday to conduct a preliminary investigation, the president of Mathraki Island said.

The body is expected to be taken to nearby Corfu Island, where an autopsy will be performed, officials said.

Barney Davis17 June 2024 19:30

1718644855

American 55-year-old found dead on secluded Mathraki island

It is only accessible by boat from Agios Stefanos and receives very few tourists, even during the high season.

There are no buses and almost no cars, on the island with boat and motorbike the most common transport modes used by locals.

Visitors were invited to explore the island on foot.

There is no camping on the island, with only a few rooms to let around the port.

The only village in Mathraki is Chorio, on the southern side of the island.

Mathraki Island has a 2 kilometres long ribbon of sandy beach, with intermittent rock shade, stretching the across the east side of the island.

On the west side, a walk takes in the Kato Mathraki church and leads to different and varied beaches.

Tourists have gone missing in recent days in Greek isles (Filippos Parginos / Wikimedia Commons)

Barney Davis17 June 2024 18:20

1718641246

Pictures show search for Dutch tourist, 74, found dead in ravine on Samos

( Hellenic Rescue Team of Samos)

Samos (Hellenic)

Hellenic Rescue Team of Samos head to the grim find (Hellenic Rescue Team of Samos )

Barney Davis17 June 2024 17:20

1718637550

Tourists often unaware of risks, says search chief

On the island of Samos, a 74-year-old Dutch tourist disappeared while hiking on Sunday. Rescue teams on the tourist island in the eastern Aegean sea said the man vanished in the area of Marathokampos.

Their body was later found in a ravine, by a firefighter drone.

Dimitris Katatzis, head of the Samos rescue team, said tourists are unaware of the risks they face walking in the heat. They often “veer off track” to see sites and then get lost, he told local media, adding: “We saw a couple [of foreigners] walking a trail in 41C without hats. It defies logic.”

Andy Gregory17 June 2024 16:19

1718636572

Greek PM considering cap on cruise ship numbers

In addition to record temperatures, Greece is expected to see record levels of tourism this year.

Overtourism is an issue in Greece, as it is in other holiday hotspots across Europe. The ombudsman report said that Santorini – a small island in the Aegean Sea with 15,550 residents – receives more than 5.5 million visitors annually, twice the number it hosted in 2012.

“In Santorini, even tourists complain about the great number of tourists,” it added.

On Friday, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with Bloomberg that the government is also considering imposing a cap on the number of cruise ships visiting the most popular tourist islands.

Andy Gregory17 June 2024 16:02

1718634692

Passengers stuck in plane on runway for three hours with no cooling in Athens heatwave

At Athens airport, passengers on a Qatar Airways flight to Doha were forced to wait hours on board due to a technical problem last week. Passengers reportedly fainted due to a lack of air conditioning.

About 49 Thai Muay Thai team members returning from the world championships were onboard the Doha-bound Qatar Airways flight 204 on Monday in 39C, which was delayed at the Athens airport.

The captain refused to allow passengers to deboard the aircraft despite the air conditioning system being out of order, the passengers complained. They were kept on the plane for three hours with the flight doors closed, Thai newspaper Matichon reported.

The extreme temperature inside the flight caused nosebleeds in travellers, while some had to rely on oxygen masks.

Rich Booth, Alisha Rahaman Sarkar17 June 2024 15:31

1718633350

Greek infrastructure struggling with extreme temperatures

The heat not only closed tourist attractions last week but schools across the country were forced to shut their doors just days before the start of the three-month-long break.

Greek schoolchildren are given three months off for summer. With temperatures rising, the holidays start in the middle of June and the next term starts again in the middle of September.

Despite schools being closed for lessons other students were forced to sit Panhellenic exams, the equivalent to A-levels, during the heatwave – many in poorly air-conditioned rooms. Parents in Athens and on the island of Thessaloniki were asked to bring fans when they dropped their children off for exams.

Workers in Athens were told to avoid activity between midday and 5pm and elderly people and those with chronic ailments were told to stay indoors.

Andy Gregory17 June 2024 15:09

1718632517

Longest heat wave ‘in decades’ to hit more than 100million Americans

It is not just Greece contending with an unprecedented heatwave.

While the heatwave hitting Greece is the earliest in any year on record, large swathes of the United States could experience the longest heatwave seen for decades, according to the US National Weather Service.

Much of the Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Northeast, and the Mid-Atlantic will experience the hottest temperatures of the summer so far, the service said, with some areas due to find themselves in daily and monthly-record breaking heat.

Andy Gregory17 June 2024 14:55

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2024-06-17 19:30:55Z
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Ukraine war briefing: Russia is ‘not ready for a just peace’, Zelenskiy tells summit - The Guardian

• More than 80 countries and international organisations have endorsed Ukraine’s territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s invasion in a joint communique issued at the end of a peace conference in Switzerland. The final statement of the summit in Bürgenstock said the UN charter, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states “can and will serve as a basis in achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine”. It called for Ukraine’s control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and its Azov Sea ports to be restored.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told the closing news conference that “Russia and their leadership are not ready for a just peace”, while welcoming the “first steps toward peace”. “Russia can start negotiations with us even tomorrow without waiting for anything – if they leave our legal territories,” he said.

• The final document also called for all prisoners of war to be released in a “complete exchange” and for all Ukrainian children who had been “deported and unlawfully displaced” to be returned to Ukraine. Working groups at the summit also addressed the issues of global food security and nuclear safety.

• However, western powers and their allies failed to persuade major non-aligned states to join the final statement as India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates all withheld their signatures from the communique. Brazil attended as an observer and did not endorse the text. Russia was not invited and China snubbed the event.

• The European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, called for “patience and determination” after the summit that was attended by more than 90 countries. “It was not a peace negotiation because [the Russian president, Vladimir] Putin is not serious about ending the war, he’s insisting on capitulation, he’s insisting on ceding Ukrainian territory – even territory that today is not occupied.”

• The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, dismissed a peace proposal presented by Putin as unreasonable, saying meeting Moscow’s demands would make Kyiv even more vulnerable to further aggression. Sullivan said at the peace summit that under the Moscow proposal “not only does Ukraine have to give up the territory that Russia currently occupies but Ukraine has to leave additional sovereign Ukrainian territory”. He noted that Kyiv would also be bound to disarm under the Russian proposal “so that it is vulnerable to future Russian aggression down the road”.

• Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a village in southern Ukraine, continuing its progress on the frontline against a Ukrainian army lacking troops and ammunition. “Units of the eastern forces have liberated the settlement of Zagrine in the Zaporizhzhia region and occupied more favourable positions,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily report. Earlier in the week, it claimed the capture of three villages in Ukraine’s east, south-east and north-east.

• The Russian army is suffering heavy losses in its Kharkiv offensive, a Russian soldier has claimed. Anton Andreev, a Russian soldier from the fifth company of the 1009th regiment, said his unit had been decimated, with only 12 out of 100 soldiers still alive as they came under constant Ukrainian fire and drones in Vovchansk, a prime target of Russia’s advances. “We are sent under machine guns, under drones in daylight, like meat,” he said in a clip, which was first published by the Russian outlet Astra and verified by the Guardian.

• A Russian journalist was killed in a drone attack in eastern Ukraine two days after the death of another correspondent near the frontline. “Our correspondent Nikita Tsitsagi was killed during an attack by Ukrainian army drones,” his news organisation, News.Ru, posted on Telegram on Sunday. It said the attack happened around the Saint-Nicolas monastery near the town of Vugledar, the scene of fierce fighting for the past three months. The Russian foreign ministry said a Ukrainian drone had “purposefully hit the Russian journalist preparing a report in the area”.

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2024-06-17 09:57:00Z
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Israel’s Netanyahu dissolves war cabinet - Al Jazeera English

Decision follows resignation of centrist Gantz and will disappoint hardliners angling to expand influence on war in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the end of Israel’s six-member war cabinet.

Reports on Monday said the Israeli leader had announced the decision at a meeting of the political security cabinet the previous evening. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have been pushing for a new war cabinet to be established after the more centrist Benny Gantz quit the emergency government.

Nationalist-religious Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have demanded Israel must continue its bombardment of Gaza despite calls for some restraint from allies including the United States, had called for a new war cabinet to be formed featuring coalition party leaders.

However, Netanyahu has reportedly turned them down.

“The cabinet was in the coalition agreement with Gantz, at his request. As soon as Gantz left – there is no need for a cabinet any more,” Netanyahu said, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.

The Israeli premier is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who had been in the war cabinet.

‘Sole control’

Gantz’s resignation from the government withdrew the only centrist power in the embattled leader’s far-right coalition, amid the months-long assault on Gaza.

Claiming that the Netanyahu government failed to present a post-war plan for the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory was an obstacle to “true victory”, Gantz has called for an election, with the prime minister facing severe pressure amid calls for a deal with Hamas to secure the release of captives held in Gaza.

However, the Israeli leader is also under pressure from his hardline coalition partners.

According to Israeli media, Ben-Gvir appealed in a letter to Netanyahu last Thursday to expand the war cabinet.

The letter reportedly said the Israeli war has over the past eight months been “conducted in secret”, through “limited forums that change their names and definitions in a loop, all for the purpose of sole control over decisions and avoiding discussion of other positions that would challenge the old conception”.

A new war cabinet with a heavy influence enjoyed by Smotrich and Ben-Gvir would have further tested relations with international partners, first and foremost the US, which has called for Israel’s military to refrain from a full ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah and for increased aid shipments.

At the same time, Washington continues to supply Israel with arms and there has been little hint that Netanyahu is ready to pull back from the onslaught in Gaza.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said “in order to reach the goal of eliminating the capabilities of Hamas, [he] made decisions that were not always acceptable to the military echelon” during the weekly cabinet meeting.

The war cabinet included Netanyahu, Gantz, Gallant, Dermer, Gadi Eizenkot, and Shas party leader Aryeh Deri. It is possible, i24News reported, that Netanyahu will continue to consult Gallant, Dermer, and Deri privately.

While such an arrangement would not have legal weight, it would allow the prime minister to continue the exclusion of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich from sensitive security discussions.

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2024-06-17 09:56:15Z
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