Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, confirmed yesterday that the Biden administration had paused the supply of thousands of large bombs to Israel. "We've been very clear...
from the very beginning that Israel shouldn't launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battle space," Austin told a Senate hearing.
"And again, as we have assessed the situation, we have paused one shipment of high-payload munitions," he said, adding: "We've not made a final determination on how to proceed with that shipment." Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the UN, said he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel, but called Washington's decision to hold up some weapons shipments "very disappointing".
Joe Biden "can't say he is our partner in the goal to destroy Hamas while on the other hand delay the means meant to destroy Hamas", Erdan told Israel's Channel 12 News.
But US officials confirmed that the pause would not be a one-off if the Rafah offensive went ahead: other arms deliveries that have already been approved could be delayed, and shipments waiting for approval could also face obstacles, such as a pending consignment of 6,500 joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMS, which convert freefall "dumb bombs" into guided weapons.
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