White House to withheld more US weapons if Israel goes into Rafah ‘in a big way’

Israel undertaking a major Rafah operation will not advance the objective of both Washington and Tel Aviv of defeating the Hamas Palestinian militant group in Gaza, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

“Smashing into Rafah… will not advance that objective,” Kirby said in a briefing with reporters, adding that the US believed there were better ways to go after “what is left of Hamas in Gaza” than a major ground invasion.

The US revealed this week that it had paused one shipment of weapons, consisting of 1,800 2,000-lb bombs and 1,700 500-lb bombs due to Israeli failure to address certain American concerns about a military operation in Rafah.

Kirby added that the weapons shipment that the US has withheld was not limiting Israel’s ability to defend itself. “Everybody keeps talking about pausing weapons shipments, but weapons shipments are still going to Israel. They’re still getting the vast majority of everything that they need to defend themselves,” he said.

Kirby also warned that if Israel goes into Rafah “in a big way,” the US president would make other decisions about the kind of support that the US is providing Israel. “We hope they will do what they’ve said to us about what they’re going to do in Rafah, which is something of limited scale, scope, size, duration.”