Israeli Politicians Rage at Biden’s Threat to Stop Sending Weapons
Senior Israeli politicians have expressed anger and dismay at President Joe Biden’s warning that he would halt shipments of U.S. weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah—the city in southern Gaza where over a million Palestinians are sheltering from the conflict.
In a CNN interview Wednesday, Biden acknowledged that American-made bombs had been used to kill civilians in Gaza and said he’d “made it clear” to Israel that “if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.”
His comments were his strongest caution yet against launching a full-scale invasion of the city—a step Netanyahu claims is crucial in securing victory over Hamas, while Israel’s international allies fear it would lead to more civilian casualties and deepen an already dire humanitarian crisis.