Jordan Fabian and Galit Altstein | Bloomberg News (TNS)
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel over concerns about a potential military offensive on the Gazan city of Rafah, which President Joe Biden opposes, according to a senior administration official.
The delivery was supposed to contain 3,500 bombs, split roughly evenly between 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) and 500-pound explosives, the official, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said.
The U.S. is worried about the damage the large bombs could inflict on dense urban areas like Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering from Israel’s war with Hamas. Washington has not made a final decision on whether to proceed with the shipment, according to the official.
The prime minister’s office declined to comment and it’s unclear if this delay will have much impact on the military’s operations in Gaza. Still, it speaks to growing tensions between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Washington has stepped up its criticism of Israel in recent months, saying it’s not doing enough to protect civilians and allow aid into the besieged Palestinian territory, parts of which the United Nations says are on the verge of famine. At the same time, Biden’s said his support for Israel is ironclad and he’s defended its right to pursue a strategy of destroying Hamas, an Islamist group backed by Iran.
This is not the first time the U.S. has used this kind of tool with Israel, though its far from commonplace.
Former President Barack Obama delayed the delivery of Hellfire missiles for several weeks in 2014 during a previous round of Gaza fighting.
Before that, Ronald Reagan halted a shipment of cluster-type artillery shells after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. And Richard Nixon held off providing arms to Israel for the first week of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
George H W Bush withheld billions in loan guarantees in the early 1990s to protest the building of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories, but didn’t touch arms sales.
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Biden’s decision, reported earlier by the Associated Press, marks one of the most significant moments of discord between Israel and its most important ally since Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault, which started the war. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., killed 1,200 people and abducted roughly 250 when its fighters stormed into southern Israel from Gaza.
Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive on the Mediterranean enclave have killed almost 35,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Biden told Netanyahu last month, following the killing of aid workers in an Israeli strike, that ongoing U.S. support for its war would depend on new steps to protect civilians.
Last month, the U.S. signed a foreign-aid package that contained billions of dollars of fresh assistance for Israel. The paused bomb shipment was not connected to those funds, according to the administration official. Arms transfers that are under review were drawn from previously appropriated money and the White House is committed to ensuring Israel gets all the new national security aid, the official said.
The U.S. has urged Israel not to attack Rafah unless it can move out the civilians first. American officials have serious doubts that can be done quickly and safely.
This week, Israel told residents in some parts of eastern Rafah to move out immediately in a possible prelude to an assault. It urged them to travel north to a “humanitarian area” near the Gazan city of Khan Younis, much of which has been destroyed. Israel’s said it’s working to ensure there will be enough tents, food and medicine for the civilians.
For now, Israeli officials are saying it’s a limited operation and are downplaying the notion that a full-on offensive of Rafah has begun.
Discussions between American and Israeli officials over Rafah plans are continuing and have yet to fully address the administration’s concerns, the official said.
“Two things can be true at once,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday, without addressing the weapons-transfer pause. “Israel has a right and a responsibility to defend itself, and we’re going to continue to provide for their security and help them with that. And at the same time, they have a right and obligation to be careful about civilian casualties and getting more humanitarian assistance in.”
Israel’s military took control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Tuesday.
Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas continue but remain stuck over Hamas’s demand that any pause in fighting is effectively permanent. Israel says the war can’t end — even if there’s a break for a weeks-long truce — until Hamas surrenders or is crushed as a military and governing organization.
Since the war started in October, the U.S. has shipped more than 200 planeloads of weapons and ammunition to help Israel. Biden has said there are no circumstances under which he would stop sending ammunition for Israel’s defense, including those used for the Iron Dome system, which intercepts rockets and missiles fired at the Jewish state.
Reliance on US
The U.S. is the biggest supplier of arms to Israel. It was the source of almost 70% of imports between 2014 and 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
A recent Finance Ministry report suggests that Israel will be heavily dependent on the U.S. for weaponry for years to come because of the war in Gaza and increased defence spending to counter threats such as those from Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
(With assistance from Ethan Bronner.)
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