A senior administration official has confirmed that the US has paused a shipment of 3,500 bombs bound for Israel. Against the wishes of the US, Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet is committed to a full-scale ground assault of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where nearly 1.4 million refugees are sheltering after evacuating the bomb blitzed Strip. On Tuesday, May 7, Israel sent tanks into Rafah and seized the crossing with Egypt, despite widespread international objections.
The shipment from the US comprises 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and another 1,700 500-pound bombs. The axed shipment is the first time that the Biden administration has acted on its warnings to Israel not to launch an incursion into Rafah over fears of civilian casualties.
Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing into Egypt came after Hamas announced that it had accepted a truce proposal. Talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement restarted in Cairo today.
Israel claims it wants to storm Rafah because the city is Hamas’s last stronghold in the Gaza Strip, and that Hamas has 5 battalions holed up in the city.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 35,000 civilians in Gaza, mostly women and children.