Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has denied reports of a crisis in US-Israeli relations over the Gaza war, after the state department confirmed a new policy of placing weapons shipments to the Jewish state under closer scrutiny due to concern over the large number of Palestinian civilian fatalities.

Israeli officials, speaking to the liberal Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, confirmed that delivery of a consignment of Hellfire missiles, which are fitted to helicopters, has been blocked by the US since late last month as part of the American decision to impose limits on the transfer of weaponry that could be used in Gaza. The suspension, the first of its kind in more than three decades, was first reported in an article in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

The article added that the Obama administration was convinced Israel had not done enough to minimise civilian casualties and that its concerns included the use of artillery rather than more precise weaponry in the densely populated coastal enclave.

Israel says Hamas uses the civilian population as human shields and thus bears sole responsibility for the casualties. It sees US criticism over the Gaza toll as falling short of the unqualified support it believes it deserves in combatting a terrorist enemy.Mr Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, said he had no knowledge of the Hellfire missiles being suspended. “We made a request and expect it to be fulfilled. There is no crisis, on the contrary the prime minister used the word terrific a few days ago to describe the support we have received from the US. Obviously our positions aren’t always identical but we are bound by common strategic interests and common values. We have a unique partnership.”

In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Show all 18 1 /18 In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict A Palestinian woman uses a piece of reebar she found amid the rubble, for support as she walks past destroyed homes in a street in Beit Hanun, northern Gaza Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Palestinian men wait for their names to be called to receive a ration of food aid at a UN compound in Gaza City Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Posters calling people to boycott Israeli products Getty Images In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Residents of a neighborhood in Gaza City gather to put out a fire at a soap factory moments after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict A Palestinian, who was injured in clashes in the Gaza strip, is carried on a stretcher to an ambulance after the arrival of a group of injured Palestinians at Ankara's Esenboga airport In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict A Palestinian, who was injured in clashes in the Gaza strip, is carried on a stretcher to an ambulance after the arrival of a group of injured Palestinians at Ankara's Esenboga airport In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Firefighters try to extinguish a fire that witnesses say was caused by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Israel has accepted a new Gaza ceasefire proposed by Egyptian mediators and will send negotiators to Cairo if the truce holds, Israeli officials said In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Smoke from fires caused by Israeli strikes rises over Gaza City In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict People watch as a fire burns in a building that witnesses say was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Palestinian fire fighters extinguish a blaze at a soap factory moments after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Palestinian firefighters try to put out the fire at a cleaning materials factory after it was hit by Israeli airstrike in Al-Meena neghbourhood in the west of Gaza City In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Palestinians react as they put out a fire in an apartment which witnesses said was hit by an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict A relative kisses the body of Palestinian Nader Driss, whom medics said died of a gunshot wound by Israeli troops during clashes at a protest against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, during his funeral in the West Bank City of Hebron In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Relatives of Palestinian woman Amani Baraka, whom medics said was killed in an Israeli air strike, mourn during her funeral in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict A Palestinian boy, whom medics said was wounded by Israeli shelling, is visited by members of a local aid society wearing costumes at a hospital in Gaza City In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict Jamal Doghmosh, a 48-year-old Palestinian mechanic who was injured in an Israeli air strike, recuperates at Shifa hospital in Gaza City. When Doghmosh woke up in hospital after the attack, he could not hear properly and found that three fingers from his right hand were also gone. He is one of thousands of Palestinians who have been left physically disabled by the conflict with Israel in the Gaza Strip In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict An injured Palestinian man from the Al-Elaa family sits inside his house after it was hit by an Israeli military strike in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict - summer 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict A view of the living room of the Okasha family house destroyed by an Israeli strike, in Jebaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip. Two female members of the family were critically wounded in the strike

Politicians and analysts are less sanguine and say relations have deteriorated sharply during the Gaza fighting. “There is a worrying trend and we can’t allow it to continue,” said the finance minister and Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid. “Our relations with the US are a strategic asset that must be maintained.”

“The sense is the Americans are totally disgusted with Netanyahu,” says Galia Golan, a political scientist at Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. “It’s something close to a crisis but it will be patched up because the administration can only go so far due to popular support for Israel and the fact there will be too much pressure from congress.” Likely 2016 presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton this week threw her support behind the Netanyahu government, blaming Hamas for the civilian casualties and endorsing continued Israeli security control over the occupied West Bank.

The Obama administration’s concern over civilian casualties came to the fore after Israel launched its ground operation in Gaza on 17 July. As Israeli shells hit UN schools in Gaza that were being used as shelters for those who fled their homes, the US sought to distance itself from its ally’s actions.

On 3 August the US said it was “appalled” by the “disgraceful” shelling of a UN school in Rafah that killed 10 people. The army said it targeted three militants on a motorbike outside the school.

Palestinians buy fruit and vegetables yesterday in Gaza City as a new five-day ceasefire went into effect (Getty Images)

Israel and the US also clashed over ways to bring about a ceasefire, with Secretary of State John Kerry enlisting Hamas allies Turkey and Qatar because of their leverage with the Islamist movement, while Israel wanted more time to deal blows to Hamas and insisted Egypt should be the sole mediator.

On 25 July, Israeli officials heaped scorn on Mr Kerry, blasting him in the media for purportedly being overly accommodating to the Turks and Qataris and acting against Israel’s security concerns. The current ceasefire talks are taking place without a US role.

In a sense, the Gaza rift is a continuation of US-Israeli tensions over the Palestinian issue, which have persisted since Mr Obama took office, pressing for a freeze on the illegal Israeli settlement building in the West Bank. Continued Israeli settlement construction and creeping annexation of the West Bank by Mr Netanyahu was seen by the Americans as one of the reasons for the failure of Mr Kerry’s efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. Israeli analysts say that also fuelling the distrust was Mr Netanyahu’s backing for Mr Obama’s rival, Mitt Romney in the last US presidential contest.

Meanwhile, Mr Obama is seen by the Israeli government as being “weak and misguided” according to Efraim Inbar, director of the Besa Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University. From attempting to engage Iran, to failing to back up a threat to use force against Syria over use of chemical weapons, to turning a cold shoulder to Egypt’s Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to enlisting Turkey and Qatar for the Gaza ceasefire, “this administration simply does not understand who are their allies and who are their enemies. It’s strategic confusion”.