Israel-Hamas War

Biden says US won't supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah, in warning to ally

It marked Biden's toughest public comments yet about the potential Israeli military operation and followed his decision to pause a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel last week

NBC Universal, Inc. The United States halted a shipment of offensive weapons to Israel last week in a sign of its growing concern over a possible military offensive on Rafah.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday 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.

Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the U.S. 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, that have been used.”

WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE

Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are.

The interview marked Biden's toughest public comments yet about the potential Israeli military operation and followed his decision to pause a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel last week over concerns that the U.S. ally was moving closer to an attack on Rafah despite public and private warnings from his administration.

The Biden administration paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that the country was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. The focus of U.S. concern was the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting like Rafah where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering after evacuating other parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war on Hamas, which came after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Austin confirmed the weapons delay, telling the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense that the U.S. paused “one shipment of high payload munitions.”

“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”

The U.S. has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. That has only accelerated in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by militants. 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 Democratic President Joe Biden, which has called on Israel to do far more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.

It also comes as the Biden administration is due to deliver a first-of-its-kind formal verdict this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on delivery of aid have violated international and U.S. 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.

Biden signed off on the pause in an order conveyed last week to the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment on the matter. The White House National Security Council sought to keep the decision out of the public eye for several days until it had a better understanding of the scope of Israel’s intensified military operations in Rafah and until Biden could deliver a long-planned speech on Tuesday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.

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 official said the decision to pause the shipment was made last week and no final decision had been made yet on whether to proceed with the shipment at a later date.

U.S. officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, word of which came as Biden on Tuesday described U.S. support for Israel as “ironclad, even when we disagree.”

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Police officers clash with pro-Palestinian protesters as a fire extinguisher is deployed at UCLA early morning on Thursday, May 2, 2024.
Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images
A counter-protester throws a fence at pro-Palestinian protesters next to their encampment on the UCLA campus on May 1, 2024.
Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images
Counter-protesters attack a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on the UCLA campus on May 1, 2024.
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images
NYPD officers in riot gear break into a building at Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian students are barricaded inside, on April 30, 2024 in New York.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Pro-Palestinian supporters climb a fence during demonstrations at The City College Of New York on April 30, 2024 in New York City.
Alex Kent/Getty Images
Columbia University pro-Palestine demonstrators barricade themselves inside Hamilton Hall, an academic building that has been occupied in past student movements, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The banner reads the name of a Palestinian child allegedly killed by the Israeli military.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images
Hundreds of students gather at San Francisco State University to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza, on April 29, 2024 in Stanford, Calif.
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
A man holds up a Palestinian flag as activists and students chant at George Washington University on Monday, April 29, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
Grace Hie Yoon/Anadolu via Getty Images
Pro-Israeli protestors on the UCLA campus on Sunday, April 28, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images
Tension rises between City College of New York students and police as the students protest against the Israel-Hamas war on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
A woman holds a Jewish Students for Palestine placard at a pro-Palestinian rally on the Penn State University campus on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Anibal Martel/Anadolu via Getty Images
Students gather at Northeastern University in Boston to protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza, on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator and a pro-Israeli demonstrator clash on the UCLA campus on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images
Supporters of an Israel protest on the University of Texas campus in Austin, on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Elijah Nouvelage / AFP via Getty Images
Pro-Palestinian students chant during a protest at Emory University on April 25, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga.
Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Indiana State Police arrest dozens of people during a pro-Palestinian protest on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Ind. on Thursday, April 25, 2024.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
A pro-Israeli protest near Columbia University students participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment on their campus on Thursday, April 25, 2024 in New York.
SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images
A person is detained by police as pro-Palestinian students protest the Israel-Hamas war on the University of Texas campus in Austin, on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
Katie McTiernan/Anadolu via Getty Images
Students protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza as they set up an encampment on the grounds of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via Getty Images
Rawda Ghalban, a junior, uses a megaphone to chant with fellow pro-Palestine supporters during a rally against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minn.
Alex Kent/AFP via Getty Images
NYPD officers clear away tents from an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian students and protesters on the NYU campus on Monday, April 22, 2024.
Alex Kent / AFP via Getty Images
Pro-Palestinian students and activists face police officers as they protest the Israel-Hamas war on the NYU campus on Monday, April 22, 2024.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to square the arms holdup with Biden’s rhetoric in support of Israel, saying only, “Two things could be true.”

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 TV news, said the decision to pause the shipment was “a very disappointing decision, even frustrating." He suggested the move stemmed from political pressure on Biden from Congress, the U.S. campus protests and the upcoming election.

The decision also drew a sharp rebuke from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said they only learned about the military aid holdup from press reports, despite assurances from the Biden administration that no such pauses were in the works. The Republicans called on Biden in a letter to swiftly end the blockage, saying it “risks emboldening Israel's enemies,” and to brief lawmakers on the nature of the policy reviews.

Biden has faced pressure from some on the left — and condemnation from the critics on the right who say Biden has moderated his support for an essential Mideast ally.

“If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., his voice rising in anger during an exchange with Austin. “This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Biden ally, said in a statement the pause on big bombs must be a “first step.”

“Our leverage is clear,” Sanders said. “Over the years, the United States 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.”

Austin, meanwhile, told lawmakers that "it’s about having the right kinds of weapons for the task at hand.”

"A small diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, that’s very useful in a dense, built-up environment,” he said, “but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage.” He said the U.S. wants to see Israel do “more precise” operations.

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 ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces have also carried out what it describes as “targeted strikes” on the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Privately, concern has mounted inside the White House about what’s unfolding in Rafah, but publicly administration officials have stressed that they did not think the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a widescale operation in the city.

The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, but the review didn’t pertain to imminent shipments.

The U.S. dropped the 2,000-pound bomb sparingly in its long war against the Islamic State militant group. Israel, by contrast, has used the bomb frequently in the seven-month Gaza war. Experts say the use of the weapon, in part, has helped drive the enormous Palestinian casualty count that the Hamas-run health ministry puts at more than 34,000 dead, though it doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians.

The U.S.-Israel relationship has been close through both Democratic and Republican administrations. But there have been other moments of deep tension since Israel's founding in which U.S. leaders have threatened to hold up aid in attempt to sway Israeli leadership.

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

__

Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

Copyright The Associated Press
Exit mobile version