President Biden said on Wednesday that the United States would not provide Israel weapons for an offensive in Rafah and recognized that Israel has used powerful American manufacturing weapons in Mortal attacks in Gaza.
In an interview with CNN, the president was asked about the American break last week of an expedition of 2,000 pound bombs in Israel and if these bombs were “used to kill civilians in Gaza”. Mr. Biden replied: “civilians were killed in Gaza because of these bombs.”
He continued by saying that if the Israelis “go to Rafah”, then “I do not provide weapons that were used historically to face Rafah”. In addition to the bombs, the president said that these weapons also include artillery shells.
But the president said that the United States would continue to support The Iron DomeThe system that protects Israel from rocket fire and ensures that Israel is capable of “responding to attacks” from the Middle East.
The Israel Ambassador to the United Nations described Mr. Biden’s threat to arrest certain arms supplies to Israel if she invades Rafah “very disappointing,” reports Agency France-Press.
“This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear a president who we have grateful since the start of the war,” Gilad Erdan told Israeli public broadcaster Kan Radio.
The former president and president of the GOP 2024, the presidential candidate, Donald Trump, said in an article on social networks that Mr. Biden “took the side of these terrorists, just as he took the side of the radical crowds who take control of our university campuses, because his donors finance them.”
Last week, the United States interrupted an arms expedition to Israel which included 1,800 bombs of 2,000 pounds and 1,700 bombs at 500 pounds while Israeli leaders approached a decision to launch an operation in Rafah, a city in the south of Gaza where more than a million people refer after fled other Gaza parts.
As the president said, the administration is particularly concerned about the fact that the largest bombs in sending could make serious damage in urban areas, a point that a senior administration official also made Wednesday. The United States has long judged that Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, and the manager said that Israel had not responded enough to American concerns about humanitarian needs in Rafah and how to approach Hamas. When Israeli leaders appeared near a decision on Rafah, the Biden administration began to examine the transfers of future weapons that could be used in Rafah and, therefore, paused last week, the official said.
Although Israeli tanks on Tuesday took control On the Gaza side of the Rafah border near Egypt, Mr. Biden said that he had not considered that it was a sufficient reason to stop the expeditions of arms, because the soldiers of Israel did not “enter the population centers”.
“I am clear to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) and in the War Cabinet, they will not get our support, if in fact they go to these population centers.”
However, the seizure of Rafah’s crossing means that one of the two key aid corridors of Gaza is closed.
Israel has long threatened ground assault against Rafah and confirmed the start of Operation Rafah After saying A proposal for a ceasefire Hamas agreed earlier this week was “far from responding to the basic requests of Israel”.
The cease-fire talks continue in the Middle East and the CIA director Bill Burns was in Israel on Wednesday for interviews with Netanyahu.
Defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the break in the arms expedition on Wednesday and acknowledged that the administration is examining Israel’s short -term security assistance in the context of events in Rafah. Several senators have been upset by the delay, including Senator Lindsey Graham, who called the “Obscene” and “absurd” movement.
Austin told senators that a final decision had not been made on what to do with the shipment, but there are measures that the administration is considering concerning Rafah. He told senators that 2,000 pound bombs can cause many collateral damage and that the United States is aimed at protecting civilian civilians.
The head of the Senate minority, Mitch McConnell, said at a press conference on Wednesday that he spoke with the American national security councilor Jake Sullivan and the Minister of Israel of Defense, saying that he continued to “express my concern to the administration that the delay in the expedition of arms to Israel is just another way to try to say an ally.
He added that the “last thing we should do” is to tell a democratic ally to have an election or how to wage a war.
Thursday, the president of the room, Mike Johnson, also criticized this decision, telling Fox News that the president “holds the will of the congress”.
“This idea of retaining weapons to Israel as a condition of in one way or another, you know, Joe Biden wishing to microchip their war effort there – their defensive effort – is a catastrophic policy,” said Johnson. “It would be devastating for our ally closest to the region.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced on Tuesday the Launch of “targeted strikes“Against Hamas in RafahWho said that Israel said that the last Bastion in Hamas after the War Cabinet of Israel approved a military operation in the city.
– Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
