Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Sunday that the United States has decided to freeze a huge shipment of D9 armored bulldozers that the Israeli Ministry of Defense had previously purchased from the American company Caterpillar. The number of bulldozers that had been ordered was 134 bulldozers.

She pointed out that this freeze may be temporary, but its effects began to become clear on the battlefield after the Israeli army was forced to use the available bulldozers, many of which were destroyed as a result of what she described as "heavy consumption" of them during the war on Gaza.

Destruction of homes

The newspaper suggested in a report by its military correspondent, Yoav Zeitoun, that the increasing popular pressure within the United States against supplying these bulldozers resulted in the deal being frozen, due to their use in home demolitions in the Gaza Strip.

He added that this situation poses major challenges to the Israeli army, which relies heavily on this equipment to secure safe paths for its forces on the ground, especially in mined areas.

Soldiers killed

He said that the shortage of bulldozers threatens soldiers in Gaza, pointing to the killing of 21 Israeli soldiers last month in Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, quoting military leaders as saying that "most of these soldiers were killed by explosive devices, as a result of the shortage of D9 bulldozers in those operations."

The reporter assumed that the freeze on bulldozer shipments would delay the establishment of new buffer zones in northern and southern Gaza, and even on the northern front on the border with Lebanon, with the Israeli army adopting other alternatives to destroying buildings, including air strikes and explosions.

The report indicated that the Israeli army is facing a shortage of heavy bombs weighing one ton, as the United States froze a shipment containing about 1,300 bombs after half of them arrived, and quoted an Israeli security source as saying that "the delay in these shipments is forcing the army to rent additional equipment from local contractors."

Other weapons influx

However, the report stated that the United States had agreed to complete a huge deal to supply Israel with about a thousand JLTV armored personnel carriers, which would enhance the ability of elite units to move flexibly in different combat zones, especially with the presence of 30 mm machine guns within the equipment of these vehicles.

Zaitoun asserts that the tensions in Israeli-American military relations come in light of the current administration facing internal pressures from human rights organizations, noting that "there are American reservations from the State Department and the Pentagon about meeting all Israeli requests for advanced weapons."