The White House on Thursday insisted that Israel will get everything it needs to defend itself against Hamas even after President Biden paused an arms shipment to prevent civilian casualties in the planned assault on the city of Rafah in Gaza.
John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, told reporters that Mr. Biden withheld offensive weapons that could be dropped on Rafah, where more than one million Gazans have taken refuge.
He maintained that not all weapons shipments to Israel will be halted with the U.S. still providing arms to defend against the terrorist organization Hamas.
“The U.S. will continue to provide Israel with all the necessities it needs to defend itself, but not specific weapons for a specific mission. We raised with Israel the consequences of using bombs with widespread destruction in densely populated areas. We still support the goal of destroying Hamas,” he said.
Mr. Kirby said the president’s policy about weapons to Israel is “straightforward.”
“He’s going to continue to provide Israel with the capabilities that it needs — all of them, but he does not want certain categories of American weapons used in a particular operation in a particular place,” he said.
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Administration officials say Mr. Biden withheld shipments of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs over fears they could be dropped on civilians in Rafah. The administration is also reviewing whether to hold back future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions.
The decision to pause the delivery marks the first time Mr. Biden has used weapons supplies to curb Israel’s approach to its war against Hamas.
The far-left, pro-Palestinian wing of the Democratic Party has been pressuring Mr. Biden for weeks to halt arms shipments to Israel. The president initially rebuffed such calls, saying Israel needed to defend itself against Hamas in the aftermath of the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack, which killed nearly 1,200 people.
Still, Mr. Kirby insisted that this was not a change in U.S. policy.
“The president and his team have been clear for several weeks that we do not support a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere safe to go,” he said. “The president has said that and he has communicated that repeatedly and straightforwardly to Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
Mr. Kirby said that Mr. Biden has proposed alternative methods of defeating Hamas without a ground operation in Rafah and those conversations are ongoing.
SEE ALSO: Hamas believes it can survive Israeli invasion of Rafah, says think tank
The White House said Mr. Biden has not made a final determination on how to proceed with the bombs withheld last week, but officials insist that he intends to send “every dollar” of the money just approved by Congress for military aid in Israel.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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