US says it will not limit Israel arms transfers

The Biden administration said Tuesday that Israel has made some good but limited progress in increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and therefore it will not limit arms transfers to Israel as it had threatened to a month ago if the situation had not improved.

State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters the progress to date must be supplemented and sustained but “we at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law.” It requires recipients of military assistance to adhere to international humanitarian law and not impede the provision of such aid.

Israel has announced a series of steps. On Tuesday, it opened a new crossing in central Gaza, outside the city of Deir al-Balah, for aid to enter. It also announced a small expansion of its coastal “humanitarian zone,” where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in tent camps. It connected electricity for a desalination plant in Deir al-Balah.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest aide, Ron Dermer, in Washington on Monday to go over the steps that Israel has taken.

President Joe Biden met Tuesday at the White House with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said a “major objective” for the U.S. should be reining in Iran and its proxies. Herzog also called for the return of the hostages taken from Israel in the Hamas terrorist attack that started the war, to which Biden said, “I agree.”

An attack by Yemen’s Houthi terrorists saw multiple explosions strike near a commercial vessel traveling through the Red Sea on Tuesday, though no damage was immediately reported by the ship, Western authorities said. The Houthis later claimed they targeted American warships there.

Netanyahu threatened Iran’s leadership on Tuesday as tensions escalate between the two regional enemies following back-and-forth aerial attacks. “There is one force putting your family in grave danger: the tyrants of Tehran. That’s it,” Netanyahu said in a direct address to the Iranian people.

First responders said a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a storage facility in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, killing two people. The Israeli military said Hezbollah terrorists fired a barrage of around 10 projectiles into the country’s north, some of which were intercepted. On Monday, the Lebanese terrorist group launched some 200 projectiles into Israel, it said.

In Lebanon, large explosions shook Beirut’s southern suburbs — an area known as Dahiyeh, where Hezbollah has a significant presence — soon after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for 11 houses there. The Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure, including command centers and weapons production sites.