A joint shipment of 2,000lb and 500lb bombs had been paused since May due to White House concerns over the use of the munitions in the densely populated city of Rafah and other parts of Gaza.
The U.S. has now clarified that the 500lb bombs were only delayed because they were “co-mingled” in the same shipment as the 2,000lb bombs. The lower-impact 500lb bombs will now proceed “as part of the usual process.”
The planned resumption of bomb shipments comes as Israel continues its military operations throughout the Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, Israel dropped leaflets instructing “everyone” in Gaza City to move south to shelters in the Deir al-Balah area, warning that Gaza City remains a “dangerous combat zone.” The paused weapons shipment had previously caused a diplomatic spat.
At a Senate hearing in May, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the pause, stating: “We’ve been very clear… from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battle space.”
“As we have assessed the situation,” he added, “we have paused one shipment of high payload munitions.”
In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back, releasing a video in which he criticized the U.S. position, stating he had told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken it was “inconceivable” that weapons and ammunition had been withheld “in the past few months.”
The video, in which Mr. Netanyahu spoke in English, appeared to be directed at Mr. Blinken and was released one hour before Mr. Blinken was due to enter a news conference.
“We genuinely do not know what he’s talking about,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded.
editor
Let there be no doubt that if ever there was proof of American complicity in the genocide that we have witnessed in Gaza here it is, 2000lb and 500lb bombs are not precision weapons! The devastation and death they bring is evident in the vivid pictures on our TV screens and mobiles, entire housing blocks full of terrified civilians most of them children left buried to die a slow agonising death, will these warmongers be ever called to account, maybe on judgement day, highly unlikely beforehand unless by some miracle they develop a moral conscience.