Biden Puts Arms Shipment to Israel on Hold Amid Dispute Over Rafah Attack

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President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel past week to forestall the U.S.-made weapons from being utilized successful a long-threatened battle connected the metropolis Rafah, medication officials said connected Tuesday night, a motion of the increasing rift betwixt Washington and Jerusalem implicit the behaviour of the war.

The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that helium feared could beryllium dropped connected Rafah, wherever much than 1 cardinal Gazans person taken refuge, the officials said. The medication is reviewing whether to clasp backmost aboriginal transfers, including guidance kits that person alleged dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions.

The determination to hold the transportation of the 3,500 bombs was the archetypal clip that Mr. Biden has utilized his powerfulness to curtail arms arsenic an instrumentality to power Israel’s attack to the warfare since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led violent attack. A fig of Mr. Biden’s Democratic allies successful Congress person for weeks urged him to limit oregon halt arms shipments to Israel, thing helium had refused to bash until present due to the fact that of his beardown enactment for the warfare against Hamas.

Israeli officials disclosed the weapons intermission to Axios earlier this week, but U.S. officials refused to corroborate it either astatine briefings oregon privately until Tuesday night. The information that they yet did truthful was a wide denotation of however overmuch vexation is increasing among medication officials that their Israeli counterparts are not heeding U.S. warnings against a large cognition successful Rafah that could pb to extended civilian casualties. Word of the arms intermission came conscionable hours aft Israel sent tanks into the city successful confederate Gaza.

One U.S. authoritative said the medication began reviewing arms shipments past period erstwhile it became wide that Israel seemed to beryllium reaching a determination connected a Rafah operation. Mr. Biden initially took the presumption that Israel should not onslaught Rafah without a program to efficaciously minimize civilian casualties, but successful caller weeks the White House has progressively indicated that it did not judge specified a program was adjacent possible.

Israel has not made wide whether it is connected the verge of opening the battle connected Rafah but has taken actions successful the past mates of days that seemed to hint it was moving successful that direction. Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of 110,000 civilians from Rafah and mounted airstrikes against targets connected the borderline areas of the metropolis successful effect to Hamas rockets that killed 4 Israeli soldiers implicit the weekend.