SECDEF Austin Says US Paused a Weapons Shipment to Israel Over Rafah Assault Concerns

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:29 pm

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Congress that the Biden administration is stalling a shipment of weapons to Israel over concerns over the Israeli military’s impending operations in Rafah.

Axios first reported on Sunday, citing two unidentified Israeli officials, that the Biden administration had placed a hold on deliveries of certain munitions to Israel last week. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, again citing unnamed officials, that the holdup impacted a delivery of up to 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs); a guidance kit attached to existing unguided bombs to steer them onto a target with some level of precision.

Politico subsequently reported the holdup in military aid also impacted deliveries of Small Diameter Bombs. NBC News reported the holdup was over a delivery of larger 2,000-pound bombs.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), who voted in favor of the recent $95 billion package for military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, pressed Austin to address the reported delay, and raised alarm that the pause in these bomb shipments could “send the wrong message to our ally Israel, and embolden Iran and Iranian backed groups.”

Austin said the Biden administration had indeed held up “one shipment of high-payload munitions.” Despite this delay, the defense secretary affirmed the Biden administration’s continued support for Israel’s ongoing military operations in the Gaza Strip.

“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin continued. “But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”

Addressing Moran’s concerns, the defense secretary said the current pause on this single weapons shipment is not a “final determination,” indicating the Biden administration may eventually deliver these “high-payload” munitions to Israel.

While largely supportive of the Israeli operations in Gaza, the Biden administration has signaled public opposition to a large-scale operation in Rafah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the southern Gazan city as one of the last major strongholds, but the Biden administration and other international observers have noted the city has also been a gathering point for about a million civilians displaced in the last seven months of fighting.

Earlier on in the war, the Israeli military had routinely told civilians in the Gaza Strip to evacuate south, as they focused their attacks on the northern end of the strip. Israeli forces have since swept south, leaving a shrinking sliver of relative safety.

Even as ground operations fixated further north, Israeli air strikes have hit Rafah and other southern Gazan communities for months. Now, with much of Gaza’s civilian population pressed up against the Egyptian border, Israeli forces are telling them to once again relocate or risk being killed as they press the attack on this southernmost Gazan city.

The Israeli operations thus far have leveled many residential structures in the Gaza Strip and have degraded critical infrastructure such as water and sewage.

On Monday, the Israeli military began advising civilians in certain parts of Rafah and the surrounding areas to relocate to Al-Mawasi, saying they have expanded a tent encampment and increased food and water deliveries to accommodate the evacuees. Hours after issuing these initial evacuation orders, Israeli tanks and armored vehicles rolled across the Rafah Crossing on the southeast outskirts of the city.

Despite the Biden administration’s repeated public objections to a large-scale operation in Rafah, their response to the Israeli seizure of the Rafah Crossing has been relatively muted. Addressing reporters at a Tuesday press briefing, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the Israeli seizure of the Rafah Crossing “appears to be a limited operation” and has not overstepped the public objections of the Biden administration.