President Biden stopped an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened attack on the city of Rafah, administration officials said Tuesday night, a sign that the growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem is over the warfare.
The president held back 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared could be dropped on Rafah, where more than a million Gazans have sought refuge, the officials said. The government is considering whether to withhold future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called “dumb bombs” into precision-guided munitions.
The decision to delay delivery of the 3,500 bombs marked the first time since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack that Mr. Biden has used his arms restriction power as a tool to influence Israel’s approach to the ensuing war. Several of Mr. Biden’s Democratic allies in Congress have been calling on him for weeks to limit or stop arms sales to Israel, something he had previously refused to do because of his strong support for efforts to destroy Hamas.
Israeli officials announced the ceasefire to Axios earlier this week, but U.S. officials refused to confirm it in briefings or privately until Tuesday evening. The fact that they finally did so was a clear sign of the growing frustration among government officials over their Israeli counterparts’ failure to heed U.S. warnings about a major operation in Rafah that could result in numerous civilian casualties take heed. The confirmation of the ceasefire came just hours after Israel sent tanks into the southern Gaza town.
A U.S. official said the government began reviewing arms shipments last month when it became clear that Israel appeared to be making a decision on a Rafah operation. Mr. Biden initially took the position that Israel should not attack Rafah without a plan to effectively minimize civilian casualties, but in recent weeks the White House has increasingly indicated that it does not believe such a plan is even possible.
Israel has not made it clear whether it is close to launching the attack on Rafah, but has taken steps in recent days that suggest it is moving in that direction. Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of 110,000 civilians from Rafah and carried out airstrikes against targets in the city’s border areas in response to Hamas rockets that killed four Israeli soldiers over the weekend.
Israel described the entry of tanks into Rafah and the occupation of the city’s border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday as a limited operation to eliminate Hamas militants and infrastructure linked to the rocket attack. The actions did not appear to be the vanguard of the larger attack Israel had promised. However, the evacuation order and limited military action appeared intended to keep pressure on Hamas while negotiators meet in Cairo to discuss a possible ceasefire agreement.
Mr. Biden did not mention his decision to withhold the bombs during a speech early Tuesday at a Holocaust memorial ceremony at the Capitol, but reiterated his support for Israel. “My commitment to the security of the Jewish people, the security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree,” he said.
The government is not stopping all arms sales to Israel and has not made a final decision at this point on what to do with the bombs withheld last week. In fact, officials said the government just approved the latest tranche of aid worth $827 million in weapons and equipment. The administration intends to transfer “every dollar” of the money just appropriated by Congress, the officials said.
But they said they were particularly concerned about the damage the 2,000-pound bombs could cause in a densely populated urban area like Rafah, with so many displaced civilians. And they are still deciding whether to send out the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) guidelines.
Biden administration officials appeared particularly upset Tuesday about Israel’s occupation of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which has hampered efforts to deliver humanitarian aid. The move came as U.S. officials worked to negotiate a deal to secure the release of some hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a temporary ceasefire.
The seizure and closure of the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the only two major entry points in the south for food, medicine and other supplies, sparked immediate warnings from international organizations that Gaza’s already severe humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the border crossing closures were “unacceptable.”
Tensions between Mr. Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have steadily increased in recent months. On a call a month ago, Mr. Biden first threatened to reconsider U.S. support for the war if Mr. Netanyahu did not change course. While Mr. Biden did not explicitly say during the call that he would restrict or cut off guns, that was an implied possibility.
The White House has since praised Israel for responding to the president’s calls by doing more to facilitate humanitarian assistance. But disagreements over the possible Rafah operation remained unresolved. Israeli officials came to Washington to lay out their plans for the attack but did not fully address the concerns of U.S. officials, who feared a bloodbath among civilians.
Administration officials told their Israeli counterparts that they could not repeat the same approach as in northern Gaza, which resulted in heavy casualties and devastated much of the territory. According to authorities in Gaza, more than 34,000 people, including combatants and civilians, have been killed in the seven months of war.
Israel relies heavily on the United States to arm its military, particularly air defense batteries like those deployed alongside American forces to counter almost all of the more than 300 missiles and drones that Iran fired at the country last month fired. The successful defense underscored how important American assistance was to Israel’s security.
Government officials have long made clear that they would not stop the use of defensive weapons. But last week’s pause over the bombs came at the same time that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will submit a report to Congress this week assessing whether Israel used American weapons in accordance with U.S. and international law .
The highly anticipated report could set the stage for a heated debate over American responsibility for Israel’s war, which has already sparked widespread protests on college campuses. Finding that Israel has broken the law would exponentially increase pressure on Mr. Biden to further curb arms shipments, while finding that Israel fought its war legally is sure to fuel protests and draw further complaints from Democrats in Congress would pull.
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2024-05-08 06:38:21
www.nytimes.com
