President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city Rafah, administration officials said on Tuesday night, a sign of the growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem over the conduct of the war.
The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared could be dropped on Rafah, where more than one million Gazans have taken refuge, the officials said.
The administration is reviewing whether to hold back future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions.
Israeli officials disclosed the weapons pause to Axios earlier this week, but U.S. officials refused to confirm it either at briefings or privately until Tuesday night.
Confirmation of the arms pause came just hours after Israel sent tanks into the city in southern Gaza.
Persons:
Biden, Biden’s, Israel
Organizations:
Biden’s Democratic, Hamas
Locations:
Israel, U.S, Rafah, Washington, Jerusalem, Gaza