In an unprecedented move for the United States, which is by far the largest weapons supplier to the state of Israel, the US State Department stopped the shipment of a scheduled delivery of weapons to the Israeli military.
The weapons include 1,800 thousand-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs. The suspension of arms shipments to Israel, according to US officials, is due to its failure to address our concerns about its plans to invade Rafah.
The move comes in the midst of growing protests at college and university campuses across the United States, which began at Columbia and Vanderbilt Universities in mid-April with student encampments for Gaza.
Now there are over 200 encampments, and more colleges and universities are being added to the list every day.
The AFP, Reuters and The Associated Press news agencies on Tuesday quoted unnamed US officials as saying that the US government began to “carefully review proposed transfers of particular weapons to Israel that might be used in Rafah” in April, when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was making daily threats that he would invade Rafah, the last town left standing in Gaza. It is also the place where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have fled to after losing their homes to Israeli bombardment in northern, western, central and eastern Gaza.
“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 told reporters.
“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 Wall Street Journal quoted an unnamed security source as saying that the US had delayed the shipment of some 6,500 JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions produced by the Boeing corporation).
Despite over 14,000 children killed and torn apart from Israeli bombardment over the past seven months, among the 36,000 total Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, the US has continued to send massive weapons shipments to the Israeli military, which have been immediately deployed by that military to attack Palestinian civilians.
Early Tuesday morning, just hours after Hamas officials said the group had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by international mediators, Israeli forces shut down and seized the headquarters and equipment of Al Jazeera, the largest media agency in the Arab world, began bombing Rafah, and rolled tanks in to seize total control of the Rafah border crossing.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not confirm the weapons shipment being held, telling reporters in a press briefing that Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security was “ironclad”. But when asked about the arms shipment delay, she said, “Two things could be true, in the sense of having those conversations, tough, direct conversations with our counterparts in Israel … in making sure citizens lives are protected … and getting that commitment.”
