Joe Biden
Israel shelled Rafah on Thursday as US President Joe Biden issued his harshest warning yet over Israel’s actions in the conflict against Hamas, threatening to shut off military deliveries if an offensive into the southern Gaza city proceeds.
Israel has disregarded international protests by sending in tanks and carrying out targeted raids in the border city, which it claims is home to Hamas’ last remaining battalions but is also overcrowded with displaced Palestinian residents.
The Israeli military later announced that it was also targeting Hamas positions further north in the Gaza Strip’s centre.
In an interview on Wednesday, Biden warned that if Israel continued with its long-threatened Rafah ground attack, US arms supply would be cut off.
“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities”, Biden stated.
Biden went on to say, “We’re not gonna supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used”.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces captured Rafah’s border crossing into Egypt, which has been the primary entrance point for aid into beleaguered Gaza.
The White House decried the interruption in humanitarian assistance at the time, and the secretary of defence later disclosed that Washington had temporarily halted a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel after it failed to address concerns about the Rafah ground assault.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs”, Biden continued.
“It’s just wrong”, Biden added.
He emphasized, however, that the US was not walking away from Israel’s security.
The United States, along with Egypt and Cairo, has been deeply involved in talks underway in Cairo to negotiate a ceasefire in the seven-month war.
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