(Bloomberg) -- Israel’s defense minister said talks with top White House officials eased “bottlenecks” in the supply of arms to Israeli forces, a sign that the two sides want to ease tensions fanned by accusations that the US was withholding weapons.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant cited “significant progress” on the issues of “force build-up and munition supply,” according to a statement from his office released after he met Wednesday with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Washington. 

“Obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed,” Gallant said in the statement without offering more detail.

It appeared to be a reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s accusation last week that the US was withholding weapons to Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. White House officials said they didn’t know what Netanyahu was referring to, though President Joe Biden had earlier held back a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs.

A White House readout of Wednesday’s meeting didn’t directly address the weapons dispute but said Sullivan reaffirmed Biden’s commitment “to ensure that Israel has all it needs to defend itself militarily and confront its Iranian-backed adversaries.”

A senior US official acknowledged bottlenecks in the system, but chalked those up to the complexity involved in weapons transfers rather than intentional delays. The only arms delivery to Israel that remains on hold is the shipment of heavy bombs, the official told reporters after Gallant met with Sullivan.

The official said US and Israeli experts reviewed all of the two countries’ arms agreements during meetings this week and agreed to prioritize some deliveries. The two sides agreed to keep talking to make sure deliveries go smoothly.

Earlier: Netanyahu Spars With White House Over Claim of Weapons Halt 

The spat over the flow of weapons highlighted just how strained relations have become between the US and its main ally in the Middle East as the civilian death toll mounts in the Gaza Strip and the US presses for more aid to be delivered to Palestinians. 

The Biden administration has grown increasingly critical of Israel’s offensive to root out Hamas, the group designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and abducted more than 250 on Oct. 7. More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between deaths of civilians and militants.

‘Mostly Dismantled’

In newly released remarks from a briefing session with reporters in Washington on Tuesday evening, Gallant said that “Hamas as a military formation has been mostly dismantled. We have destroyed most of the Hamas battalions and formations and are now fighting pockets of resistance.”

He also said he has been working on a “day-after” proposal for governance of Gaza after the war that “includes regional partners, the United States and, of course, local Palestinian actors.” He said it depended in part on “the international community, which must participate and not only criticize.”

The US is worried that Israel might also launch an offensive in response to attacks across Israel’s northern border by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, setting off a wider regional war. 

Touching on that possibility, Gallant said he and Sullivan had talked about “Israel’s commitment to ensuring the safe return of Israeli communities to their homes in the north by changing the security reality in the area.”

In the session with reporters, Gallant said that “we don’t want to get into a war because it’s not good for Israel. We have the ability to take Lebanon back to the stone age, but we don’t want to do it.”

--With assistance from Jordan Fabian and Akayla Gardner.

(Updates with Gallant comments to reporters, starting in the 10th paragraph.)

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