WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States warned Thursday that Israel would be delivering a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out plans for a all-out attack on Rafahthe last major attack by the militants fortress in Gaza.
The warning was supported by a new threat from the President Joe Biden: He says he will stop further offensive military assistance to Israel if it continues its operation in a city where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering.
Biden last week suspended a shipment of large bombs to Israel due to concerns that the weapons are of the type that have caused significant civilian casualties in Gaza and would almost certainly cause more damage if Israel were to conduct a major offensive on Rafah.
On Wednesday, he floated the possibility of delaying future shipments of bomb and artillery guidance kits to Israel, in the hope that the threat would cause Israel to abandon an operation in the city.
The statements are part of the latest effort for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government to rethink their public commitments to invade the city in an effort to eradicate Hamas. The US believes such a move would result in significant civilian casualties and exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The US is taking the most drastic measures yet to influence its ally’s decision-making in the ongoing war against the militant group that was sparked by Hamas attack on October 7 against Israel. Around 1,200 people in Israel were killed and around 250 were taken captive.
“Our view is that any kind of major ground operation in Rafah would actually strengthen Hamas’ hands at the negotiating table, not Israel’s,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Thursday. He said more civilian deaths in Rafah due to an Israeli offensive would give further ammunition to Hamas’ “distorted narrative” about Israel.
Negotiations in Cairo aimed at securing a six-week ceasefire to allow for the release of some hostages and an increase in food and aid to civilians in Gaza continue, Kirby added. But CIA Director Bill Burns and other delegations to the talks left Egypt on Thursday without a deal.
Kirby said it was too early to know whether the delay in aid had changed the Israeli calculus, but that the US continued to advise Israel on how it could defeat Hamas through more surgical operations.
“We believe that they have put enormous pressure on Hamas and that there are better ways to go after what is left of Hamas in Rafah than a major ground operation,” he added.
Biden, in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, insisted that despite the weapons delay, the US was still committed to the defense of Israel and would provide Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive weapons.
He acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza” by the type of heavy bombs the US has provided. It was his first validation of what critics of the administration have been loudly protesting, even though he has not yet taken responsibility. His threat to withhold artillery shells amplified earlier revelations that the US would suspend a shipment of heavy bombs.
Biden said Israel’s actions around Rafah “have not yet” crossed its red lines, but repeated that Israel needs to do much more to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza. The Hamas-run Ministry of Health puts the death toll at more than 34,000, although it does not distinguish between militants and civilians.
Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that despite the American pause, “we have what we need” to continue the mission. His comments came after Netanayahu rejected Biden’s threat, saying in a statement: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.”
The US has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid to Israel. The paused shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to a senior U.S. government official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. matter. The focus of US concern was on larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban area.
“I have made it clear that if they go to Rafah – they have not gone to Rafah yet – if they go to Rafah, I will not provide the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with this problem,” Biden said.
“We are not moving away from Israel’s security,” continued the Democratic president. “We are moving away from Israel’s ability to wage war in these areas.”
US authorities refused for days to comment on the suspension of the transfer. News of this came as Biden on Tuesday described US support for Israel as “inflexible, even when we disagree.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, in an interview with Israeli news channel Channel 12 TV, said the decision to pause the shipment was “a very disappointing, even frustrating decision.” , the US campus protests and the upcoming elections.
The decision also drew a sharp rebuke from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who said they only learned of the delay through press reports despite assurances from the Biden administration that such breaks were not from work. Republicans called out Biden in a Letter quickly end the blockade, stating that it “risks emboldening Israel’s enemies”, and inform lawmakers about the nature of policy reviews.
Biden has faced pressure from some on the left and condemnation from critics on the right who say Biden has tempered his support for a key Middle East ally.
“The American people overwhelmingly support Israel,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, who promoted a resolution condemning Biden’s decision. “And they also believe that Israel needs to do what is necessary, and if that includes going to Rafah to eradicate the Hamas threat, then that is necessary for its own survival.”
Former President Donald Trump, entering a New York courtroom for his criminal trial about silent payments, also criticized Biden, saying on Thursday that “what Biden is doing regarding Israel is shameful.” The presumptive Republican presidential nominee added: “If any Jew voted for Joe Biden, he should be ashamed of himself. He has completely abandoned Israel.”
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Biden ally, said in a statement that the pause on big bombs should be a “first step.”
“Our influence is clear,” Sanders said. “Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahu’s terrible war against the Palestinian people.”
Israeli troops on Tuesday took control of Vital Gaza border crossing at Rafah in what the White House described as a limited operation which fell short of Israel’s full invasion of the city, which Biden has repeatedly warned against.
Israel ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces also carried out what they describe as “targeted attacks” in the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical channel for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits, which place precision guidance systems on bombs, to Israel, but the review does not address imminent shipments.
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Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
