Report: Netanyahu won’t attend 4th of July event at US ambassador’s Jerusalem home

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly not planning to attend the 4th of July event at the US ambassador’s residence in Jerusalem, given tension between him and the Biden administration.

According to the Kan broadcaster, the prime minister has cited the ongoing war in Gaza as the reason that he will not join the annual event.

Tensions between Netanyahu’s office and the Biden administration, already shaky since war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s October 7 massacre, flared last week when the prime minister issued a video statement slamming the “inconceivable” “bottlenecks” that the US had placed in transferring shipments of weapons and ammunition.

The video shocked the Biden administration, which has insisted that it had no idea what Netanyahu was talking about. There was one shipment of high-payload bombs that was held up last month due to US fears that it would be used in the then-crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, but all other transfers are continuing at a regular pace, the US has insisted.

There have also been strains over other issues, including efforts to reach a hostage release and ceasefire deal on which US President Joe Biden’s entire regional plan hinges.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.