U.S. Won’t Supply Weapons For Israel To Attack Rafah

President Joe Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than 1- million civilians sheltering there, Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs. I Photo: President Joe Biden Facebook

Biden, in an interview with CNN, said that the US was still committed to Israel’s defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms but that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”

Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza” by the type of heavy bombs that the US has been supplying -- his first validation of what administration critics have been loudly protesting, even if he still stopped short of taking responsibility.

The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Biden ally, said the pause on big bombs must be a first step. “Our leverage is clear,” Sanders said. “

Over the years, the US has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrific war against the Palestinian people,” Josef Federman, Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee also reported for AP.

President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel with the threat of sanctions into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 amid the Suez Crisis.

Ronald Reagan delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel at a time of escalating violence in the Middle East. President George H.W. Bush held up $10 billion in loan guarantees to force the cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories.