Israeli officials acknowledged that the IDF was forced to reduce its military operations in the Gaza Strip; Because the stock of ammunition ran out.
Managing weapons stocks has become a major problem for the IDF, as shortages are expected in the near future. Huge US supplies may not be able to meet this shortfall.
The Israeli General, Commander of the Southern Command, Major General Eliezer Toledano, said, “It is our duty to manage the armament issue.”
For his part, in mid-January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed this issue publicly, saying, “We need the United States for three things: weapons, weapons, weapons.”
In an attempt to fill these loopholes, the Israeli Ministry of Defense has placed orders worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the United States in recent days. They include 155mm shells as well as Boeing’s Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) systems, which improve bomb accuracy through the use of an integrated global positioning system (GPS).
A report issued by the Israeli economic website Calca list stated that the war in Gaza is depleting the Israeli stock of weapons, which may force the army to economize and rely on American military supplies.
Since the beginning of the bloody war that Israel is waging on the Gaza Strip, three major companies – Rafael, Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), and Elbit Systems – have postponed the supply of weapons worth more than $1.5 billion to their customers around the world in order to give priority to supplies allocated to the Israeli army.
he Ministry of Defense made its contribution by placing record orders worth $2.5 billion since October 7 to about a hundred Israeli companies in this sector.
This shortage of weapons is partly due to the prolongation of the war. Military analysts also point to technological advances that allow multiple, precise attacks to be carried out on several targets at the same time.
The danger of war in Lebanon
An official in the Ministry of Defense points out the need for the Israeli army to take into account the threats facing it on more than one front.
He pointed out that the Hebrew state cannot use all the weapons it possesses in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, while the threat of war looms in the north with the Lebanese Hezbollah.
According to NBC, citing American officials, President Joe Biden is inclined to slow down arms shipments intended for Israel as a means of pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change the tactics used in his war on Gaza, which may deepen the dispute between Biden and Netanyahu.
The Americans insist on establishing a humanitarian corridor in the Gaza Strip, and reducing Israeli air strikes, which have so far killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.
