U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel, reviewing others as presses for Gaza ceasefire
“I’ve made it clear that if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons,” President Biden told CNN tonight.
CIA Director Bill Burns shuttled from Cairo to Israel today as the United States intensified efforts to try to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would secure the release of hostages held by Hamas. American officials also confirmed that the U.S. administration last week withheld a shipment of thousands of high-payload bombs to Israel, out of concern that Israel might use them in a military operation in the densely crowded southern Gazan city of Rafah, and said they are reviewing some other military assistance to Israel.
“I’ve made it clear that if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons,” President Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in a taped interview that aired tonight. “It’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”
“We have paused one shipment of near term assistance, and we are reviewing others,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told journalists at the department press briefing today (May 8).
"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 battlespace," Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told a Senate Appropriations committee hearing today.
“As we have assessed the situation, we paused one shipment of high payload munitions,” Austin confirmed. “We’ve not made a final determination on how to proceed with that shipment,”
“We are currently reviewing some near term assistance in the context of unfolding events,” Austin said.
Burns met this morning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad Director David Barnea in Jerusalem, Israeli media reports said.
American officials did not offer immediate guidance on how Burns’ consultations went, but stressed that they believe reaching a deal is possible.
“It does remain our assessment that a deal is possible,” Miller said. “That a deal is within reach. There’s clearly space to reach an agreement, and we’re going to push to try to get one over the line”.
Negotiating teams from Qatar, Israel, and Egypt, in addition to Burns, were in Cairo to try to support indirect talks on a Hamas-Israel ceasefire/hostage release deal.
Centcom commander Michael “Erik” Kurilla was also in Cairo on Tuesday amid rising Egyptian tensions over Israel’s incursion into Rafah and seizure on Monday of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing.
Israel said today that it had reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, but the State Department’s Miller said no humanitarian aid had been able to get through because of security issues.
The Rafah crossing, seized by Israel on Monday, is essential for delivery of fuel to Gaza, as well as for humanitarian aid workers, among others, to enter and exit the territory, Miller said. It remained closed and no fuel had been able to be delivered since Monday, which aid agencies need to fuel trucks to deliver humanitarian aid in the strip, where much of the population is assessed to be on the brink of famine.
“So it’s absolutely critical that that crossing is open and that it remain open,” Miller said.
Israeli defense sources told the Times of Israel that Israel had no plans to reopen the crossing.
“With the continued closure of Rafah Crossing, humanitarian aid agencies warn that existing fuel stocks to sustain aid operations will be depleted within days,” the United Nations humanitarian office said today. “Tens of thousands of people have been forcibly leaving Rafah in search of safety, but the few displacement sites they arrive at lack essential infrastructure.”
Signs U.S. policy on Gaza shifting
U.S. officials are increasingly signalling that a policy decision has been taken, presumably by the president, that there will be consequences by way of changes in U.S. support for Israeli operations in Gaza for Israel violating clearly communicated U.S. positions, including proceeding with a major ground invasion of Rafah, and failing to sustain increased deliveries of humanitarian aid to the strip.
“We have always made clear that our policy determinations are dependent on Israel policy determinations,” Miller said.
“The U.S. position has been that Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere else to go,” a senior U.S. administration official said Tuesday night.
“As Israeli leaders seemed to approach a decision point on such an operation, we began to carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah,” he said. “This began in April.
“As a result of that review, we have paused one shipment of weapons last week,” the official said. “It consists of 1,800 2,000-lb bombs and 1,700 500-lb bombs. 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.”
“For certain other cases at the State Department, including JDAM kits, we are continuing the review,” the official said. “None of these cases involve imminent transfers – they are about future transfers.”
Updated at 9pm with President Biden’s comments to CNN.
**