US President to Pause Arms Delivery over Rafah but Israel Remains Unaffected
US President Joe Biden has declared that he will not support nor provide weapons for the Israeli regime’s assault on Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah.
“I’ve made it clear to Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if they go [into] these population centers,” the president told CNN.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which [Israel] goes after population centers.”
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah… I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem,” he added.
However, Biden still believes that “Israel” has not yet crossed the “red line” with regards to conduct in Gaza but is apparently “close in doing so.”
The Pentagon has revealed very limited details on the aid it has sent : $320m in precision bomb kits in November, and in December, 14,000 tank shells costing $106m, and $147.5m for 57,000 155mm artillery shells as well as their fuses and primers, plus 30,000 howitzer charges.
The US initially sought to supply the 1,700 500lb bombs and in particular the 1,800 2,000lb bombs which Biden has now paused.
Notably, a 2000 lb bomb is four times heavier than even the largest bombs used by the US against ISIS in Mosul and can blow up a small apartment block while leaving a 12 meter wide crater.
The 2000 lb bombs were misused in strikes against the Jabaliya refugee camp on Oct. 31, which killed hundreds of people.
According to CNN, 500 large craters were formed in Gaza by the Israeli bombing during the first month of the regime’s onslaught, which were caused by the 2000 lb munitions.
However, the pause of weapons delivery will hardly affect the Israeli regime after 25 F-35 fighter jets were approved for sale just a month ago.
Dozens of people, including women and children, have already been killed in Rafah caused by the intense airstrikes in the east of the city, which includes illegally-deployed white phosphorus munitions.
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