WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has warned Israel for the first time that the US would stop providing arms to Israel if its forces invade Gaza’s city of Rafah.
“I made it clear that 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,” Biden said in during an interview with CNN.
Biden agreed that the US weapons have been used by Israel to kill civilians in Gaza.
According to the Gaza health ministry, Israel’s relentless bombardment campaign has killed at least 34,844 Palestinian people in Gaza, mostly women and children, since October 7.
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Israel this week attacked Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians are taking refuge, but termed it as a limited operation.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had reviewed carefully the delivery of arms that could be used in Rafah and as a result halted a shipment comprising of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the decision was taken due to concern for Rafah, where the US opposes a major Israeli invasion without protection of the civilians.
He added that civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs.
Biden has said the US would continue to provide defensive arms to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system.
He said the US is going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and its capability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently. However, he added that Rafah offensive is wrong, so the US is not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.
