US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would cut off some US arms shipments to Israel if it goes ahead with its plan to invade the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, US media reported.
Under such a scenario, Biden said, the US would continue to supply Israel with defensive weapons but would stop supplying other weapons.
In an interview with a TV news channel, the US president said:
I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – 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.
The announcement came after the Israeli war cabinet voted in favour of continuing operations in Rafah. Israel has threatened a full ground invasion of the city, where more than a million Palestinians have fled the Gaza war.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that any ground operation in Rafah would mean more suffering and death for the 1.2 million displaced Palestinians.”
Despite this, Israeli defence forces seized the vital Rafah crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, leading to its closure. Food, medicine and other essentials for Palestinians flow through the crossing.
Biden told CNN that while the US will continue to supply Israel with defensive weapons, including for the Iron Dome air defence system, other supplies will stop if Rafah is captured. He said:
We are not walking away from Israel’s security. We are walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.
Earlier in the day, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that Washington had suspended the supply of “high-capacity munitions” to Israel as it continues to carry out its plans in Rafah without regard for civilian casualties. Lloyd told a US congressional subcommittee:
We are going to continue to do what is necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself, but that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah. We have been very clear that Israel should not launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace.
Al Jazeera television reported that among the shipments halted last week were 1,800 bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds, about 907 kilograms, and 1,700 bombs, each weighing 500 pounds, about 226 kilograms.
Following Biden’s statement, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the decision to suspend the shipments was “very disappointing.” Erdan said:
[Biden] cannot say he is our partner in the goal to destroy Hamas, while on the other hand delay the means meant to destroy Hamas.
Around 80,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since the start of an Israeli offensive on the city in the southern Gaza Strip on May 6, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Thursday. UNRWA said in a statement:
People are facing yet another forced displacement in the Gaza Strip. The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe.
Israel’s war with the Gaza Strip has been going on for more than seven months. The war began after Hamas invaded southern Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people. The militants have also taken more than 200 people hostage. Since October, Israel has launched unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza. These strikes have killed some 34,800 people, including more than 14,500 children.
The world community has strongly criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza. Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and leader of the leftist MEPA25 party, wrote on X:
Israeli bombs killed baby Hani Mahmoud Qishta’s parents in October. Hani was saved from his dying mother’s womb & raised by his aunt, his brothers&sisters. Two days ago all of them were killed in Rafah. 9 members of the Qishta family were killed in total, including four children.
He also noted:
Meanwhile in the West Bank (where Hamas is absent), the settlers are continuing to prove that the only game in the Israeli playbook is systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Meet Adam Al-Reshq, age 16, a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. Beaten by settlers. Today.
French left-wing spokesman Jean-Luc Mélenchon also tweeted:
This is who we are dealing with: murderers. This is what our country’s officials are saying. Likud leader Shimon Boker declares live on Israeli television, There are no innocent civilians in Gaza. You must go in there and kill, kill and kill.
The UN International Court of Justice has accused Israel of genocide. A January interim ruling said it was “likely” that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take steps to ensure humanitarian aid was provided to civilians in Gaza.
