Pentagon chief confirms US has paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion

WASHINGTON — The US halted a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that the country is nearing a decision on launching a full-scale attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against US wishes, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

The shipment would consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The US focus has been on the larger explosives and how they could be used in a densely populated urban environment like Rafa, where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering after the evacuation of other parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war against Hamas, which took place after the deadly attack by the militant group. about Israel on October 7.

Austin confirmed the weapons delay, telling the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee that the US had halted “one shipment of high-payload ammunition.”

“We will continue to do what is necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “That said, we are currently assessing some short-term security assistance shipments in the context of the events in Rafah.”

The US has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. That has only accelerated in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and led to about 250 people being captured by militants. The pause on the aid shipment is the most striking manifestation of the growing daylight between the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of President Joe Biden, who has called on Israel to do much more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.

It also comes as the Biden administration is set to issue a first-of-its-kind formal ruling this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on aid deliveries violate international and U.S. laws designed to to spare civilians from the worst horrors of the fight against Gaza. war. A decision against Israel would further increase pressure on Biden to curb the flow of weapons and money to the Israeli military.

Biden signed the pause in an order conveyed to the Pentagon last week, according to U.S. officials who were not authorized to comment on the matter. The White House National Security Council sought to keep the decision out of the public eye for several days until it had a better understanding of the extent of Israel’s intensified military operations in Rafah and until Biden could deliver a long-planned speech on Tuesday to mark the Holocaust. Remembrance Day.

The Biden administration began reviewing future military aid transfers in April as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer to an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said the decision to pause the shipment was made last week and that no final decision had been made on whether the shipment would continue at a later date.

U.S. officials declined to comment for days on the halted transfer, with Biden describing U.S. support for Israel on Tuesday as “rock solid, even if we don’t agree with it.”

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to reconcile the gun raid with Biden’s rhetoric in support of Israel, saying only: “Two things could be true.”

Israeli forces seized control of Gaza’s crucial Rafah crossing on Tuesday in what the White House described as a limited operation that halted just before the full Israeli invasion of the city that Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds, most recently on Monday . calling Netanyahu.

Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces have also carried out what they described as “targeted attacks” on the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a crucial conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Privately, concern has grown within the White House about what is unfolding in Rafah, but public administration officials have emphasized that they did not feel the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a large-scale operation in the city.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Israel described the operation along the Gaza-Egypt border in eastern Rafah as “an operation of limited scope and duration” aimed at cutting off Hamas’ arms trafficking , but also said the US would monitor the fighting.

Just last month, Congress passed a $95 billion national security bill that included funding for Ukraine, Israel and other allies. The package included more than $14 billion in military aid to Israel, although the stalled transfer was not related to that measure.

The State Department is separately considering whether to approve continued transfers of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems on bombs, to Israel, but the review did not address upcoming shipments.

The US dropped the £2,000 bomb sparingly in its long war against the Islamic State militant group. Israel, on the other hand, has used the bomb extensively in the seven-month war in Gaza. Experts say the weapon’s use has partly contributed to the huge number of Palestinian casualties, which the Hamas-led Health Ministry estimates at more than 34,000 dead, although it does not distinguish between militants and civilians.

The relationship between the US and Israel has been close in both Democratic and Republican administrations. But there have been other moments of deep tension since Israel’s founding, when American leaders have threatened to suspend aid in an effort to influence Israel’s leadership.

President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel to withdraw from Sinai in 1957, in the midst of the Suez Crisis, with the threat of sanctions. Ronald Reagan delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel at a time of escalating violence in the Middle East. President George HW Bush withheld $10 billion in loan guarantees to force a halt to Israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories.

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AP writers Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.