Israeli government officials blasted President Joe Biden after he said the United States would halt shipments of weapons to Israel if it launches a military offensive in Rafah, with the national security minister saying "Hamas (loves) Biden," according to reports.
Despite Biden's threat, officials said they would continue to prosecute the war against Hamas, which invaded Israel on Oct. 7.
"Israel will continue to fight Hamas until its destruction," Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, according to the Times of Israel, adding: "There is no war more just than this."
But National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's reaction was blunt.
"Hamas Biden," he posted on his X account.
The president in an interview on CNN Wednesday evening said he would halt shipments of some weapons if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried through with his plan to attack the city in Gaza, noting that U.S.-supplied bombs have been used to kill civilians.
"If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities - that deal with that problem," Biden told CNN.
Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," Biden said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog tried to mediate the outrage.
"Even when there are disagreements and moments of disappointment between friends and allies, there is a way to clarify the disputes," Herzog said, the New York Times reported.
In an apparent reference to Ben-Gvir's statement, he called on Israel's leaders to "avoid baseless, irresponsible and insulting statements and tweets that harm the national security and the interests of the state of Israel."
