President Joe Biden said he would halt additional shipments of offensive weapons to Israel if the country proceeded with a ground invasion of Rafah, decrying the potential loss of civilian life as “just wrong.”
Alex Wroblewski—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesU.S.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said.Earlier Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the U.S. is reviewing “other potential weapon systems” as needed.
“The pause in arms shipments should not be read as a major break in the relationship,” said Mara Rudman, who held senior Middle East diplomatic roles in the Obama and Clinton administrations and is now a professor at the University of Virginia. “Consider it as an element in the mix at a key inflection point — maximizing efforts to reach a cease-fire that brings out hostages, brings in humanitarian relief and starts to build a pathway to greater sanity all around.
The U.S. has stepped up its criticism of Israel in recent months, saying it’s not doing enough to protect civilians and allow aid into the besieged Palestinian territory, parts of which the United Nations says are on the verge of famine. “There have been far too many casualties in this battle space,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in congressional testimony Wednesday.
The pauses “call into question your pledge that your commitment to Israel’s security will remain ironclad,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a joint letter to Biden Wednesday. “Daylight between the United States and Israel at this dangerous time risks emboldening Israel’s enemies and undermining the trust that other allies and partners have in the United States.
Biden told Netanyahu last month, following the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers in an Israeli strike, that ongoing U.S. support for the war would depend on new steps to protect civilians.
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