Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday reiterated his claim that there had been a “dramatic drop” in US weapons deliveries for Israel's war effort in Gaza.
Speaking to his cabinet, he said the drop began about four months ago, without specifying which arms shipments were affected.
His comments come as Netanyahu was due to address the US Congress on Monday amid increasing tensions between Israel and Washington over the war in Gaza.
The US has been particularly critical recently of the Israeli military's conduct in the Palestinian enclave and the harm done to civilians.
Biden has delayed delivering certain heavy bombs since May over those concerns, but his administration fought back last week against Netanyahu's charges that other shipments had also been affected.
After the Netanyahu levelled the charge the first time, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about. We just don’t.”
On Sunday, a White House official said the administration has repeatedly stated its position on the matter, and declined to respond to Netanyahu's comments.
The person, who wished to remain anonymous, said US officials were looking forward to “constructive consultations” in Washington this week with Israel's visiting defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Also on Sunday, Netanyahu said the phase of intense fighting against Hamas in Gaza was coming to an end but that the war would not end until the Islamist group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave.
He said once the intense fighting was over in Gaza, Israel will be able to deploy more forces along the northern border with Lebanon, where fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah has escalated .
Airstrike on Gaza training college
Witnesses said at least eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a training college near Gaza City.
They said the strike hit part of a vocational college run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) that is currently being used to provide aid to displaced families.
Israel’s military said the site was being used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants and said precautionary measures that been taken before the strike to reduce the risk of harming civilians.
UNRWA said that since the beginning on the war in October last year, nearly 190 of its building in Gaza had been hit and 193 of its team members have been killed in the conflict.
Fighting around Rafah
The airstrike came as Israeli tanks pushed further into of Rafah with residents reporting heavy clashes in neighbourhoods in the west of the city in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military said it was continuing "intelligence-based, targeted operations" in the area and had located weapons stores and tunnel shafts, and killed Palestinian gunmen.
Two more deaths from malnutrion
In Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, health officials said two more babies have died of malnutrition.
This brings the death toll from hunger and thirst to at least 31, health officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital said.
In its latest update, the Gaza health ministry said more than 37,598 people had been killed in the enclave since 7 October, many of them women and children, and over 86,000 have been wounded.
