The US administration has suspended a shipment of bombs to Israel for the first time in the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza, a senior official said amid mounting anger at the war’s impact on Palestinian civilians.
The suspension occurred last week over concerns that Israel was set to launch a full-scale assault on the city of Rafah, the senior administration official said. Israeli forces on Tuesday seized control of the Rafah border crossing, but that was played down by Washington as stopping short of the threatened city-wide assault.
The step signals the strongest displeasure yet towards its Israeli allies from President Joe Biden’s administration, which has been under growing pressure in the US over the war ahead of elections, including from students staging a series of sit-ins nationwide.
The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds each and 1,700 of 500 pounds each, according to the administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Concern in the Biden White House is said to be growing at the use of the heavy bombs in the dense urban setting of Gaza if Israel presses ahead with an offensive in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought shelter from fighting further north.
More than 34,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 civilians.
The United States is Israel’s leading arms supplier, accounting for nearly 70% of its weapons imports, with Germany and Italy accounting for nearly all the rest, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
US shipments intensified after the October attack by Hamas including thousands of guided bombs and missiles, the think tank said. British arms exports are a small proportion of Israel’s total. Since 2008, the UK has licenced arms worth more than £574 million to Israel, according to Government data.
But campaigners say that fails to take account of cutting-edge F35 fighter jets exported from the US, 15% of whose value is made in the UK. And the SNP is calling for the UK Government to stop arms sales to Israel because of the toll of the war on Palestinian civilians.
Cabinet minister Claire Coutinho said: “We have very robust policies in place when it comes to arms exports.”
But she urged the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to share a plan with its allies to protect civilians in Rafah in the event of a full-scale offensive.
“The whole way through this horrific war we’ve made it extremely clear that we need to make sure that aid can get into Gaza, that civilians can be protected,” the Secretary of State for Energy Security said on LBC.
“So it’s very important that we see this plan and we are deeply concerned about these actions.”
Mr Netanyahu insists the war will go on until Hamas is eradicated from Gaza and has rejected an apparent breakthrough in peace talks this week after the Palestinian group said it was open to another hostage-prisoner swap.
The Israeli leader called the capture of the border crossing an "important step" toward dismantling Hamas' military and governing capabilities, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would "deepen" the Rafah operation if talks in Cairo on the hostage deal fail.
