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IDF soldiers died due to lack of ammunition, says Netanyahu

In veiled criticism of Biden administration, Israel’s prime minister says that IDF soldiers died because of a lack of ammunition, adding that the situation improved when Trump took office.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Some Israeli soldiers fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip died as a result of chronic shortages of ammunition in the IDF, Israel’s prime minister said on Tuesday evening, in a veiled criticism of the Biden administration.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Hostage Coordinator Gal Hirsch, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that ammunition shortages during the war in Gaza led to fatalities among IDF soldiers.

“At one point during the war we didn’t have enough ammunition, and our soldiers died,” Netanyahu said. “Some of the loss of ammunition was a result of the embargo,” Netanyahu continued, alluding to restrictions placed by various countries, including the US, on weapons sales to Israel.

“That changed completely when Trump took office.”

Drawing lessons from the wartime weapons shortages, Netanyahu said that Israel must be able to meet its own ammunition needs with an independent manufacturing capacity.

“We have reached security maturity — we must have an independent domestic arms industry. And within a decade, I intend to completely free us from the financial component of American security assistance, which currently stands at $4 billion. I want to move relations with the United States from aid-based relations to partnership-based relations — joint investments, joint development, and joint production.”

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Last month, Netanyahu announced that Israel will invest $110 billion to cut the country’s dependence on weapons imports.

“We will continue to acquire essential supplies while independently arming ourselves,” Netanyahu said on December 24.

“I don’t know if a country can be completely independent, but we will strive … to ensure our arms are produced as much as possible in Israel.”

“Our goal is to build an independent arms industry for the State of Israel and reduce the dependency on any party, including allies.”