Biden Withheld Bomb Shipment To Israel In Response To Rafah Invasion

The Pentagon chief confirmed earlier reports that the administration had paused a shipment of more than 3,500 bombs to Israel last week.

The Biden administration has admitted to pausing a major shipment of bombs to Israel, in response to the country’s plan to invade Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress that the U.S. paused a munitions shipment last week to Israel, publicly confirming for the first time earlier reports by Axios and other outlets about the U.S. witholding arms.

“We are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah,” the Pentagon chief said during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. He added that a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah — where roughly 1.4 million displaced Palestinians have taken refuge — could influence how the U.S. provides security assistance to Israel going forward.

“We have been very clear from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack on Rafah without accounting for and protecting those civilians that are hitting that battlespace,” Austin continued. “And again, as we have assessed the situation, we paused one shipment of high payload munitions.”

More than half of the bombs in the delayed munitions shipment consist of 2,000-pound bombs, while the remaining 1,700 are 500-pound explosives, a senior administration official told media outlets. The State Department is separately reviewing whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits (JDAMs), which place precision guidance systems onto bombs.