While the police were in charge of dismantling the pro-Palestine protests on university campuses in the United States last week, Joe Biden’s Government gave the order to stop the shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel, concerned that its ally in the Middle East would use them. in its then announced ground offensive on Rafah, now underway.
As reported by CNN, citing a US official who asked not to be identified, the detained shipment included 1,800 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds (907 kilos) and 1,700 bombs weighing 500 pounds (226 kilos). The informant noted that the concern is mainly due to the end use of the 1,800 heavier bombs and “the impact they could have in dense urban environments as we have seen in other parts of Gaza.”
These 3,500 bombs represent a small part of all the weapons that Joe Biden’s Government has sent to Israel since the start of the war, on October 7. The last delivery was secretly approved in mid-March and included more than 2,000 bombs and 25 fighters.
The American network had already advanced the news over the weekend about the stoppage of a shipment of ammunition to Israel, but the reason was not clear. It is also not known how long this suspension will prevail, which is temporary, according to the US official.
The US Government has spoken out on several occasions against the announced invasion of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip and the last territory of the enclave that until Monday had not been the subject of the fiercest fighting ( although yes from the bombings). And it has called for a comprehensive plan to protect the more than one million civilians refugees in that city and its surroundings in order to avoid an expansion of the humanitarian disaster that the strip is experiencing due to the war declared by Israel against Hamas after the attack carried out. on October 7 by that Islamist movement in Israeli territory.
The United States dropped the 2,000-pound bomb sparingly in its long war against the Islamic State. Israel, on the other hand, has used the bomb frequently during the seven months of war in Gaza, as several journalistic investigations have shown. Experts say the use of the weapon has contributed, in part, to the huge number of Palestinian casualties that the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry estimates is more than the huge number of Palestinian victims that the Hamas-run Health Ministry estimates. Hamas estimates more than 34,000 deaths. In addition to the more than 78,000 injured.
Since the start of the war, Joe Biden’s Government has sent weapons to its partner several times. The last was the secret approval in mid-March of the shipment of more than 2,000 bombs and 25 fighters.
This Tuesday, Israeli military forces took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and cut off the passage of people and goods (they also closed the Kerem Shalom crossing), while continuing to bomb the area. As a result, the Gaza Strip was cut off from humanitarian aid.
The Israeli army claimed to be carrying out a “limited operation” in the area. An explanation that the US State Department spokesman, Matt Miller, repeated later on Tuesday at a press conference, although he assured that the next steps had to be seen to know the scope it would have. “They have said, I think quite clearly, that it is no secret that they want to carry out a major military operation there. We have made it clear that we oppose such an operation,” he added.
Despite the reservations expressed, United States support for Israel “is ironclad,” as President Joe Biden insisted on Tuesday in his speech at the annual event against the Holocaust. An idea that The Pentagon reinforced by considering that the suspension of the shipment of bombs did not change its commitment to the defense of Israel. “Our commitments to Israel’s security remain the same,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a briefing Tuesday.
