Biden Says U.S. Will Stop Arms Shipments If Israel Invades Rafah

The United States will stop supplying offensive weaponry to the Israelis if the country goes through with a planned invasion of the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, a signal that he is willing to put conditions on aid to Israel for the first time and that he’s reached a major break with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said during an interview with CNN, acknowledging the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians during the war launched in retaliation after Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah ― they haven’t gone in Rafah yet ― 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,” Biden said.

Biden, long a staunch and unquestioning supporter of Israel, has come under intense pressure from Democrats to finally place conditions on military aid to the country, which has been accused of war crimes and has been deemed at risk of committing genocide in its attacks on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Biden said the U.S. would continue to provide for Israel’s defense, as it did when it assisted the country against an attack from Iran last month.

“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said, adding, “We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

Rafah is one of the last remaining safe zones in the Gaza Strip, and humanitarian groups fear a full-on Israeli invasion of the city would result in