The United States last week stopped sending bombs to Israel after that country failed to respond to Washington's "concerns" about its plans to invade Rafah in southern Gaza, a senior US official said on Tuesday.
“Last week we stopped a shipment of weapons. “There are 1,800 907-kilo bombs and 1,700 226-kilo bombs,” said a senior official in President Joe Biden's administration on condition of anonymity.
“We have not made a final decision on how to proceed with this shipment,” the official added.
The Biden administration made the decision at a time when it appeared that Israel was about to launch a major ground operation in Rafah, which Washington has strongly opposed.
Israeli and US officials had been considering alternatives, but “those discussions are ongoing and have not fully met our concerns,” the senior US official said.
“As Israeli leaders appeared to approach a decision point on that operation, we began to carefully review transfers of certain weapons to Israel that could be used in Rafah. “This started in April.”
The US official said Washington was “especially focused” on the use of the heavier, 907kg bombs, “and the impact they could have in dense urban sites, as we have seen in other parts of Gaza.”
The US State Department is still reviewing other weapons transfers, such as JDAM precision bomb systems, the official added.
Israel sent tanks into Rafah on Tuesday and captured the border crossing with Egypt, but the White House said earlier that Israel promised it was a “limited operation.”
