The US paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that they could be used in an assault on the southern Gaza Strip city of , according to a senior Biden administration official.
The official said the administration “began to carefully review proposed to Israel that might be used in Rafah” beginning in April.
“As a result of that review, we have paused one shipment of weapons last week,” the official told reporters.
These weapons consisted of 1,800 bombs with a nominal weight of 2,000 lbs (900 kilograms) and 1,700 bombs with a nominal weight of 500 lbs (225 kilograms).
It marks the first time the US has acted on a warning that President Joe Biden made to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month that US policy on Gaza would depend on how Israel treated civilians.
More than 1 million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter in Rafah after evacuating from other parts of the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s military offensive. in response to the October 7 terror attack by .
“We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza,” the official said.
“We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment,” they added.
zc/nm (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)
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