Pentagon chief confirms US suspended bomb shipments to Israel to express concerns over Rafah invasion

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration suspended bomb deliveries to Israel last week, fearing the country was close to making a decision on whether to launch a large-scale bomb. Assault on the town of Rafah, southern Gaza against the wishes of the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

The shipment was supposed to include 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. The main US concern was about larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban environment like Rafah, where more than a million civilians have taken refuge after evacuating other parts of Gaza in the middle of an armed conflict. Israel’s war against Hamaswhich took place after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7.

Austin confirmed the arms delay, telling the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee that the United States had suspended “a delivery of high-payload munitions.”

“We will continue to do what is necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “But that said, we are currently looking at some short-term security assistance shipments in the context of the events unfolding in Rafah. »

The United States has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. This situation has only accelerated following the October 7 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people in Israel and led to around 250 people being captured by militants. The suspension of aid delivery is the most striking manifestation of the growing conflict between the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, who called Israel do much more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.

It also comes as the Biden administration is should deliver a formal verdict, the first of its kind this week on the question of whether airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on aid delivery violated international and American laws intended to spare civilians the worst horrors of war. A decision against Israel would further aggravate pressure on Biden to curb the flow of weapons and money to the Israeli army.

Biden approved the pause in an order sent to the Pentagon last week, 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 public view for several days until it had a better understanding of the scope of Israel’s intensified military operations in Rafah and beyond. that Biden can deliver a long-planned speech on Tuesday to mark the Holocaust. Remembrance Day.

In April, the Biden administration began reviewing future military assistance transfers as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer to an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said the decision to suspend the shipment was made last week and no final decision had yet been made on whether to continue the shipment at a later date.

U.S. officials declined for days to comment on the transfer halt, news of which came as Biden on Tuesday described U.S. support for Israel as “ironclad, even if we don’t agree.”

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to reconcile the gun-toting with Biden’s pro-Israel rhetoric, saying only: “Two things could be true.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, said the decision to suspend the expedition was “a very disappointing, even frustrating decision.” He suggested the move was a result of political pressure on Biden from Congress, protests on US campuses and the upcoming election.

The decision also drew sharp criticism from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said they only became aware of the military aid blockage news reports, despite assurances from the Biden administration that such pauses were not in the works. Republicans challenged Biden in a letter to quickly end the blockade, saying it “risks emboldening Israel’s enemies,” and to inform lawmakers of the nature of the policy revisions.

Biden has faced pressure from some on the left — and condemnation from critics on the right who say Biden has moderated his support for a key Middle East ally.

“If we stop the weapons needed to destroy the enemies of the State of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay the price,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., his voice rising in anger during of an exchange with Austin. . “It’s obscene. It’s absurd. Give Israel what it needs to fight the war it cannot afford to lose. »

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

“Our influence 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 horrible war against the Palestinian people.”

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

“A small diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, is very useful in a dense, built environment,” he said, “but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create many collateral damage. He said the United States wanted to see Israel conduct “more precise” operations.

Israeli troops took control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing in what the White House described as a limited operation it did not result in the all-out Israeli invasion of the city that Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds, most recently in a Monday call with Netanyahu.

Israel ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces also carried out what they described as “targeted strikes” on the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a key channel for the flow of humanitarian aid along the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Privately, concern has grown at the White House about what is happening at Rafah, but publicly, administration officials have stressed that they do not believe the operations have defied Biden’s warnings against a large-scale operation in the city.

The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer to Israel of Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits, which place precision guidance systems on bombs, but the review did not include imminent shipments.

The United States dropped the 2,000-pound bomb sparingly during its long war against the Islamic State militant group. Israel, on the other hand, used the bomb frequently during the seven-month Gaza war. Experts say the use of the weapon contributed in part to the huge number of Palestinian casualties that the Hamas-led Health Ministry estimates at more than 34,000, although it does not distinguish between militants and civilians.

Relations between the United States and Israel have been close under both Democratic and Republican administrations. But there have been other moments of deep tension since Israel’s creation, in which U.S. leaders have threatened to withhold aid in an attempt to influence Israeli leaders.

President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel, under threat of sanctions, to withdraw from 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 HW Bush provided $10 billion in loan guarantees to force an end to Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories.

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