The US halted an arms shipment to Israel last week over concerns the ammunition might be used in Rafah.
As per The Washington Post, citing a senior White House official, the suspended shipment was set to include 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, which the Biden administration fears could lead to substantial civilian casualties if deployed in the heavily populated city.
Furthermore, the State Department is considering selling Israel its Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits, which enable guided bombs to be steered to their targets with precision. A $260 million sale of 6,500 JDAM kits was made in January, however the Biden administration has since ordered a review of the deal by the department, according to the report.
Israel’s leadership has been facing mounting from the US over its planned ground operations into Rafah, even though Hamas continues to use the city’s 1.5 million Arab residents as human shields.
“What I can only reiterate is that we’ve been consistent and the President was consistent again this morning that we don’t support ground operations in Rafah that would put the majority or even any of the civilians there at any greater risk. We want to see their safety and security allowed for and factored,” said White House spokesman John Kirby in a press briefing on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued an evacuation order on Monday for Gazans to evacuate eastern Rafah and head to designated safe zones equipped with food, water, and medicine.
