The United States halted a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over fears that Israel was nearing a decision on whether to launch a large-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
More than a million civilians are taking shelter in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war against Hamas, which came after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7.
Historically, the United States has provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. That has only accelerated following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel and led to about 250 being captured by militants.
The pause in aid deliveries is the most striking manifestation of the growing division between the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of President Biden, which has called Israel do much more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.
An Israeli soldier walks near an armored personnel carrier near the border with the southern Gaza Strip on May 7.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on buildings near the separation wall between Egypt and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The official said the decision to pause shipping was made last week and a final decision had not yet been made on whether to continue shipping at a later date.
It also comes as the Biden administration is due to issue a formal verdict, the first of its kind, this week on whether airstrikes in Gaza and restrictions on aid deliveries have violated international and U.S. laws designed to save civilians from the worst horrors of war. war.
A decision against Israel would further increase pressure on Biden to stem the flow of weapons and money to Israel’s military.
In April, the Biden administration began reviewing future transfers of military assistance 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 shipping was made last week and a final decision had not yet been made on whether to continue shipping at a later date.
U.S. officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, news of which came as Biden on Tuesday described U.S. support for Israel as “fierce, even when we disagree.”
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to square the arms grab with Biden’s rhetoric in support of Israel, saying only: “Two things could be true.”
Israeli troops took control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing in what the White House described as a limited operation that fell short of the full Israeli invasion of the city that Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds, most recently in a Monday call with Netanyahu.
President Joe Biden speaks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on May 7, 2024 in Washington.
Smoke rises after the Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza, on May 7, 2024.
A young Palestinian inspects the damage inside a building destroyed after the Israeli bombardment of the Tal al-Sultan district of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on May 7, 2024.
Israeli tanks also entered Rafah during the operation to eliminate Hamas fighters and infrastructure.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces also carried out what they describe as “targeted strikes” in the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Concern has grown within the White House about what is happening in Rafah, but publicly administration officials have emphasized that they did not believe the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a large-scale operation in the city.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Israel described the operation along the Gaza-Egypt border in eastern Rafah as “an operation of limited scale and duration” aimed at cutting off the Hamas weapons smuggling, but also said the United States would monitor the fighting.
Israeli bombing inside Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, seen from inside southern Israel on May 7, 2024.
A man lies in the rubble after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on May 7, 2024.
Last month, Congress passed a $95 billion national security bill that included funding for Ukraine, Israel and other allies.
The package included more than $14 billion in military aid to Israel, although the stalled transfer was unrelated to that measure.
The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of joint direct attack munitions kits, which put precision guidance systems on bombs, to Israel, but the review did not address imminent shipments.
The United States 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 during the seven-month war in Gaza. Experts say the weapon’s use, in part, has helped fuel the huge Palestinian toll that the Hamas-run Health Ministry estimates at more than 34,000 dead, although it does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
