White House spokesperson John Kirby on Thursday took issue with comments from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the Israeli leader claimed the Biden administration was withholding weapons and ammunition.
“We didn’t know that video was coming. It was perplexing to say the least,” Kirby told reporters when asked about Netanyahu’s comments, which were made in a video posted to social media earlier in the week.
“[There’s] no other country that’s done more or will continue to do more than the United States to help Israel defend itself,” the national security communications adviser added. “Those comments were deeply disappointing and vexing to us.”
Kirby said he had “no idea” what Netanyahu’s motivation was in making the comments criticizing the Biden administration.
“You’d have to talk to the prime minister about what prompted him to do that,” Kirby said. “Again, it was vexing and disappointing to us, as much as it was incorrect. So, difficult to know exactly what was on his mind there.”
Kirby’s remarks were the sharpest White House pushback yet against Netanyahu’s latest comments.
The prime minister posted a video to social platform X on Tuesday in which he addressed the camera in English and said it was “inconceivable that, in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel.”
The White House paused a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel over concerns about the weapon being used in high-population areas in Gaza. But military aid has otherwise continued to flow to Israel, despite concerns from some Democrats, and the U.S. aided Israel in warding off a drone attack by Iran earlier this year.
Democrats, including President Biden, have grown frustrated with the war in Gaza, where local officials say more than 37,000 people have been killed as Israel fights to destroy Hamas, the militant group that invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
Biden warned last month he would stop supplying Israel with offensive weapons such as bombs and artillery shells if it launched a long-promised invasion of Rafah. But the White House has maintained Israel has not crossed a red line, even after an Israeli strike killed dozens of Palestinians in the southern Gaza city.