JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv must be more independent in producing weapons to reduce its vulnerability to external pressures.

“We of course need to adapt it to the needs realized in this war, which also exist in the world,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron as cited by a Sunday statement released by his office.

“We need to be much more independent in the production capacity of the weapons we need,” he added.

During the meeting, which was held on Thursday, Netanyahu received a copy of the bank’s Annual Report for 2023.

“The main data, first of all, have very encouraging signs of a relatively fast recovery in both wages and employment,” Netanyahu said. “Regarding credit cards, it even surpasses where we expected to be before the war.”

He said Tel Aviv needs “to be immune from external pressures because we need to make our own decisions."

Netanyahu's remarks were released after US media reported Friday that the Biden administration had approved the sale of new warplanes and thousands of unguided bombs worth $2.5 billion to Israel amid its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The news led many to criticize Washington over decrying the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and discouraging a new offensive in the city of Rafah, while continuing to sell Israel lethal weapons of war.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 32,800 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,300 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which on Thursday asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza, warning: “Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine ... that famine is setting in."

​​​​​​​* Writing by Ikram Kouachi