Washington DC, United States

The officials of the United States and Israel went through "every single case" of weapons shipments at a meeting held in Washington, DC and sorted any "misunderstandings" while making "real progress," said a senior administration official. 

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However, this clearing of misunderstanding does not indicate that the US will start shipping the large bombs which has been paused since May after President Joe Biden expressed his concerns regarding their use in highly populated areas such as Rafah. The officials confirmed that the pause is still under review, as reported by The Times Of Israel. 

In regard to other weapons and supplies, the official stated that there were misunderstandings between the countries and that the delegations worked to clear the "complexities" in the highly bureaucratic approval system of the United States as well as pushed for prioritising the requests for certain items.

"We were able to go through everything, and I think where there were some misunderstandings, those were clarified -- about where certain cases might be in the course of our process, which can be complex," the senior administration official was quoted as saying.

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"There was real progress in a mutual understanding of where things stand, of prioritisation of certain cases over others, so that we can make sure that we are moving things in ways that meet the needs of the Israelis, and with the only exception being one shipment of MK-84s [the 2,000-pound bombs] that remains paused and under review," he added.

The meeting was held after a video was released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 18 in which he accused the United States of slowing weapons shipments which has been denied by the latter. 

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Israeli Defense Minister Yaov Gallant and national security adviser Jake Sullivan did not discuss the video in the meeting, said the official. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant shared an update with reporters Wednesday after meeting with US officials on the latest in the Israel-Hamas conflict and rising tensions with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Made significant progress in meetings and removed obstacles: Gallant

Gallant held talks with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and various other US officials in Washington DC.

"During the meetings, we made significant progress, obstacles were removed, and bottlenecks were addressed, in order to advance a variety of issues and more specifically the topic of force build-up and supply of munition,” said Gallant.

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Gallant said he talked about "several issues," including "Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, the hostage issue, the transition to the next phase in Gaza, and how this will impact the region".

Amid the continuing Israel-Hamas war, negotiations have been stalled for securing the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organisation and Israeli forces have been launching incursions in the southern Gazan town of Rafah before a possible large-scale invasion.

(With inputs from agencies)