ENTRE News– For the first time, US President Joe Biden warned Israel publicly that the United States would stop supplying weapons if the Jewish state’s army made a major invasion of Rafah, Gaza Strip.
“I’ll be clear if they go to Rafah… I’m not going to supply the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah, to deal with cities, that would deal with that problem,” Biden said in an interview.
Biden is aware that weapons from the US have been used by Israel to kill civilians in Gaza during its seven-month invasion of the area under the pretext of hunting Hamas soldiers. So far, Israel has killed 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, the Palestinian Health Minister FOR4D said. This week, Israel attacked Rafah, a city where more than 1 million Palestinians live as a place of refuge. But Israel called the attack a limited attack.
Meanwhile, as reported by Reuters, a senior official in the US government said anonymously that Washington was carefully reviewing the shipment of weapons that might be used in Rafah. As a result, on Tuesday (7/5) morning, the US temporarily stopped deliveries consisting of 1,800 bombs weighing 907 kilograms and 1,700 bombs weighing 226 kilograms.
US Defense FOR4D Secretary Lloyd Austin said the decision was taken out of concern for Rafah on the pretext that Washington opposed a large-scale Israeli invasion without protecting civilians.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other methods they use to attack residential centers,” he said of the 907 kilogram bomb sent to Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel is frustrated with the United States’ decision to stop sending weapons for the war in Rafah. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, admitted that he did not believe in the US decision. He even called the decision very disappointing and frustrating.
“US President Joe Biden cannot say that he is our partner in the goal of destroying Hamas (in the Gaza war) while on the other hand delaying the means (weapons deliveries) intended to destroy Hamas,” Erdan said in an interview on Israel’s Channel 12 News FOR4D.