Weeks after President Joe Biden signed a bill to allow weapons to keep flowing to Israel, the Biden administration is preventing some weapons from reaching it.
Last week, the Biden administration halted a planned shipment of bombs to Israel because it does not want Israel to attack Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where Israel believes the last major organized Hamas forces have gathered, according to Reuters. Other shipments have been halted for two weeks.
The official, who Reuters did not name, said that once it seemed clear Israel would defy the Biden administration, “We began to carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah.”
“As a result of that review, we have paused one shipment of weapons last week. It consists of 1,800 2,000-lb bombs and 1,700 500-lb bombs,” the official said.
This is outrageous.
President Biden is caving to Hamas sympathizers and abandoning our allies in Israel.
The Biden administration must lift every hold on ammunition and weapons that Israel needs and deserves to defend itself from vicious terrorists. https://t.co/BwrhToZnHl
— Rep. Randy Feenstra (@RepFeenstra) May 7, 2024
“We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza. We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment,” the official said.
The report noted that some of the weaponry stopped would convert bombs that are not precision-guided into ordinance that can be precisely targeted.
Should the Biden administration be more supportive of Israel?
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration’s commitment to Israel was “ironclad.”
In speaking about the stalled shipment, she said, “Two things could be true, in the sense of having those conversations, tough, direct conversations with our counterparts in Israel … in making sure citizens’ lives are protected … and getting that commitment.”
The delays were the first since Israel responded to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas by invading Gaza.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said differences between the U.S. and Israel would be resolved “behind closed doors,” according to the Times of Israel.
Preferring to dwell on the positive, he said American support for Israel has assumed “a scope without precedent, I think, in Israel’s history.”
He sidestepped any definitive comment about an Israeli attack on Rafah.
“We will deal with Rafah in a way that is right for us,” Hagari said, adding, “even after we deal with Rafah, there will be terrorism. Hamas will move north and try to regroup, even in the coming days. Wherever Hamas returns to, both in the north and in the center of the Strip, we will return to action.”
So the Biden administration is withholding the weapons Israel needs in order to minimize casualties, forcing Israel to use non-precise weapons so that the Biden administration can then accuse Israel of killing civilians.
If this is true, we are talking a whole deeper level of… https://t.co/q7Aw4npNyQ
— Avi Abelow (@aviabelow) May 6, 2024
This week, the State Department will deliver a report passing judgment on Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza, according to the Times of Israel.
“That is our intention, to provide it on time,” State Department representative Matthew Miller said on Monday. The report is due Wednesday.
In February, Biden began to require foreign aid recipients to prove they are abiding by international law and not blocking humanitarian aid.
