An American official announced on Tuesday that the United States last week suspended sending a shipment of bombs to Israel after it failed to address Washington’s “concerns” regarding the Israeli army’s plans to invade Rafah, the city located in the far south of the Gaza Strip and crowded with displaced people.
A senior official in the administration of US President Joe Biden told Agence France-Presse, requesting that his name not be published, “Last week we suspended sending one shipment of weapons consisting of 1,800 bombs, each weighing 2,000 pounds (907 kg), and 1,700 bombs, each weighing 500 pounds (226 kg).
“We have not made a final decision on how to proceed with this shipment,” he added.
The Biden administration took this decision when it seemed to it that Israel was about to launch a major Israeli invasion and genocide of Rafah as it started in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack, something that Washington strongly opposes.
The senior American official confirmed that Israeli and American officials discussed alternatives, but “those discussions are ongoing and have not fully addressed our concerns”.
He continued, “When it seemed that Israeli leaders were approaching the point of making a decision on such an operation, we began a careful review of the transfers of certain weapons to Israel that could be used in Rafah. This began in April”.
He explained that Washington is “particularly focused” on the heavier bombs, each weighing two thousand pounds, “and the impact they could have in crowded urban areas, as we have seen in other parts of Gaza”.
According to the US official, the State Department in Washington is conducting a review of other weapons transfers, including the use of precision bomb kits known as JDAMs.
Biden is trying to avoid a large-scale Israeli attack on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge to escape genocide elsewhere in the Strip.
Four sources told Reuters that the weapons shipments, whose deliveries were delayed by at least two weeks, include Joint Direct Attack Munitions made by Boeing, which convert unguided bombs into precision-guided bombs, as well as small-diameter bombs.
This comes at a time when Washington is publicly pressuring Israel to postpone its planned attack on Rafah until a plan is developed to avoid civilian deaths.
The White House and the Pentagon declined to comment.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah, cutting off a vital route for delivering aid to the under-Israeli-bombing Gaza Strip.
Without addressing whether there was a delay in sending the weapons, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security is “strict”.
However, when asked about reports of arms delays, she said, “There are two things that can be right, when you have those talks, the tough, direct talks with our counterparts in Israel… making sure that the lives of citizens are protected… and getting that commitment.”
The Pentagon said on Monday that there was no political decision to withhold weapons from Israel, the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East.
But this delay appears to be the first since the Biden administration expressed its full support for Israel following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the Israeli military attack on Gaza followed by ethnic cleansing and genocide caused the death of 34,789 Palestinian civilians including women and children and the injury of more than 78,000 people.
Many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face starvation, lack of medical facilities, genocide, and ethnic cleansing due to this military invasion, which has sparked protests in the United States to demand that universities and Biden stop supporting ethnic cleansing and genocide by Israel with weapons and other means.
A senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not confirm any delay in arms supplies, but did not seem bothered by the reports, saying, “As the prime minister already said, if we have to fight with our nails, we will do what we have to. We have to do it.”
