Washington: In his first public warning on Wednesday (local time), US President Joe Biden warned that he will stop supplying weapons if Israeli forces launch a major invasion in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are taking refuge and thousands have been evacuated. Biden's statement comes days after Israel launched a highly-opposed attack in Rafah, but the US President did not consider it a full-scale invasion as it did not strike any "population centres".
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah ..., I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said in an interview with CNN. He also acknowledged that US weapons have been used to kill civilians in Gaza during the seven-month-long war with the militant group Hamas, which has claimed the lives of 34,789 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres," he said when asked about 2,000-pound bombs sent to Israel. Biden's statements mark the strongest public language to date in his effort to deter an Israeli assault on Rafah while underscoring a growing rift between the US and its strongest ally in the Middle East.
Israeli troops on Tuesday seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing in what the White House described as a limited operation that stopped short of the full-on Israeli invasion of the city that Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds, most recently in a Monday call with Netanyahu. Israel has already ordered the evacuation of 1,00,000 Palestinians from the city.
Washington pauses shipment to Israel
A day before Biden's remarks, a senior administration official said the US has paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that it was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the Rafah against the wishes of the US. The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, with the focus of US concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin later said Biden decided to pause the delivery of high payload munitions to Israel because Washington believes a possible Israeli offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah could put civilians at risk. Austin further said the administration was also reviewing some "near-term security assistance shipments" to Israel.
"We've been very clear... from the very beginning that Israel shouldn't launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace... And again, as we have assessed the situation, we have paused one shipment of high payload munitions," Austin told a Senate hearing.
Israel's UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, earlier this week called Washington's decision to delay shipments "very disappointing" although he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham was among the Republicans who rebuked the Biden administration over the decision. "This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need," Graham told Austin.
Pressure on US over mounting death toll
The US is Israel's biggest arms supplier and has provided enormous amounts of military aid for its closest ally in the Middle East following the war with Hamas that erupted on October 7 when the group attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people. However, the US has received intense criticism for providing arms that have been used to kill thousands of civilians in Gaza and triggering a humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged enclave.
The pausing of the aid shipment is the most striking manifestation of the growing daylight between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the administration of US President Joe Biden, which has called on Israel to do far more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza. Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House.
The Biden administration is also due to deliver a first-of-its-kind formal verdict this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on the delivery of aid have violated international and US laws designed to spare civilians from the worst horrors of war. A decision against Israel would further add to pressure on Biden to curb the flow of weapons and money to Israel’s military.
(with inputs from agencies)
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