US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin has confirmed a pause on shipment of weapons to Israel.
He told a Senate hearing that President Joe Biden’s decision to hold up on the delivery of high payload munitions to Israel was taken in the context of Israel’s plans to carry out an offensive in Rafah that Washington opposes without new civilian safeguards.
“We’ve been very clear… from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into the Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace.
“And again, as we have assessed the situation, we have paused one shipment of high payload munitions.”
Lloyd Austin
“We’ve not made a final determination on how to proceed with with that shipment,” Austin added.
The delay comes at a time when Washington is publicly pressuring Israel to postpone its planned offensive in Rafah until it has taken steps to avert civilian casualties.
Lloyd’s remarks came hours after a senior administration official was reported as stating that the Biden administration paused a shipment of weapons to Israel last week in opposition to apparent moves by its forces to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Unnamed US officials said that Washington began to “carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah” in April when it seemed Israel appeared close to making a decision on the assault.
“As a result of that review, we have paused one shipment of weapons last week. It consists of 1,800 2,000-pound [907kg] bombs and 1,700 500-pound [227kg] bombs,” one official reportedly said.
“We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza. We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment,” the official was quoted as saying.
He spoke on condition of anonymity given the issue’s sensitivity.
Dan Perry, author of the Ask Questions Later newsletter, opined that Israel will be viewing the US pause on a shipment of weapons to Israel as “a signal of US dissatisfaction with the tactical part of what’s happening in Rafah today”.
He said that the US shares Israel’s strategic goal of removing Hamas from power and returning the captives, but it also has certain things it wants from Israel.
For the past several months, it wanted Israel to let in more humanitarian aid and wanted Israel to ensure there was “a plan to avoid a bloodbath when they go into Rafah”.
“The US doesn’t oppose [the invasion of Rafah] on principle at all, but they certainly want that to happen after displaced people have been offered a solution so that they’re not in the way of fire,” Perry said.
Survey Says Democrats Accuse Israel Of Committing Genocide
Meanwhile, a new study showed that the majority of voters from President Biden’s Democratic Party agree that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The survey by Data for Progress, in collaboration with Zeteo, found that 56 percent of Democratic respondents agree with genocide accusations against Israel, while only 22 percent reject them.
Overall, a plurality of 39 percent of respondents said that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
The findings could spell political trouble for Biden who has been facing increasing pressure from his Democratic base over his “ironclad” support for Israel, months before the presidential elections in November.
The survey, which included responded from 1,265 likely US voters, also found that 70 percent of respondents support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
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