Israel hits Rafah despite US warning on arms transfers
RAFAH: Smoke rose from strikes on Gaza’s crowded southern city of Rafah on Thursday after US President Joe Biden vowed to stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons to Israel if a full-scale offensive into the city goes ahead, AFP reported.
It was the starkest warning yet from the United States, Israel’s main military provider, over the civilian impact of its war against Hamas Palestinian militants.
US President Joe Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there.
Biden, in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, said that the US was still committed to Israel’s defence and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms but that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used”.
Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza” by the type of heavy bombs that the US has been supplying -- his first validation of what administration critics have been loudly protesting, even if he still stopped short of taking responsibility.
His threat to hold up artillery shells expanded on earlier revelations that the US was going to pause a shipment of
heavy bombs. The US has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. That has only accelerated in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack, which killed some 1,200 people in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by militants.
Biden’s comments and his decision last week to pause the shipment of heavy bombs to Israel are the most striking manifestations of the growing daylight between his administration and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Biden said on Wednesday that Israel’s actions around Rafah had “not yet” crossed his red lines, but has repeated that Israel needs to do far more to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza.AGENCIES