The Biden administration has delayed the delivery of some munitions to Israel as it reviews their use against civilians in Gaza.
The Pentagon is reviewing some of the planned weapons shipments to Israel against the backdrop of a possible Israeli siege of Rafah in southern Gaza, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a May 8 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Mr. Austin clarified that no decision had been made to halt the shipments in question altogether.
“We are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of the unfolding events in Rafah,” Mr. Austin said.
“We’re assessing. We have not made any final decisions on this yet. ... There are some things that we’re taking a closer look at.”
There are currently about 1.5 million people in Rafah, most of whom were forced to flee their homes in the north because of Israel’s initial offensive. The Biden administration fears that a large-scale Israeli military operation in the region would mean tens of thousands of civilian deaths.
To that end, Mr. Austin said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant earlier in the week and repeated the administration’s desire for Israel to move civilians out of the battlespace in Gaza and allow increased humanitarian assistance to enter the besieged territory.
Mr. Austin told the Senate on May 8 that precision munitions could help Israel in limited operations in Rafah but that the delayed shipments were of “high-payload munitions” that would cause excessive “collateral damage” if used in such an environment.
“It’s about having the right kinds of weapons for the task at hand,” Mr. Austin said. “A small-diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon that’s very useful in a [densely] built-up environment, is very helpful. But maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage.
“Again, we’ve made no decision [to prevent shipments]. We’re assessing.”
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) condemned the determination and said it was necessary to give Israel all the tools they desired for their war against Hamas regardless of the perceived morality of their use.
Mr. Graham said the delay in some weapons shipments was “disastrous,” comparing Israel’s use of large bombs in populated areas to the United States’ use of nuclear weapons against Japanese civilians during World War II, saying both were justified.
“This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose,” Mr. Graham said.
“This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.”
Mr. Austin said that Israel’s current strategy in Gaza would just create more terrorists, however—a lesson hard won by the United States after two decades at war in the Middle East.
“Hamas does not equal the Palestinian people,” he said. “They are not one and the same. What we’ve learned is you have to protect the people, the civilians in the battlespace, otherwise you create more terrorists going forward.
“It’s not only a moral imperative, it’s also a strategic imperative that you protect civilians. And the two aren’t mutually exclusive. You can do both.”
Though some shipments of bombs have been temporarily delayed as their usefulness is evaluated, Mr. Austin noted that the largest-ever security supplemental was signed into law last month and will provide Israel with more than $16 billion in assistance with its war effort.
Mr. Austin said that the U.S. “commitment to Israel is ironclad” and that “Hamas has to be defeated,” but with a strategy that does more to preserve civilian life.
“Since October 7, we have flown in billions of dollars worth of security assistance,” Mr. Austin said.
“We’ve been very clear that we have to do more, Israel needs to do more, to protect civilians in the battlespace, and we wanted to make sure that we saw a plan to move those civilians out of the battlespace before executing any kind of ground combat operation.”
Likewise, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the administration had “paused one shipment” of near-term assistance and is “reviewing others” to prevent further loss of life.
“We have very serious concerns about a potential Rafah operation,” Mr. Miller said. “We have concerns about what that would mean for the civilian population there when you look at the fact that there are so many people crowded into such a small area; when you look at the ways Israel has conducted its operation in the past and what the impact on the civilian population has been.”
Many Republican members of the committee were frustrated with the review of some weapons by the administration, however.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) responded to Mr. Austin during the May 8 hearing, saying that any delay in weapons deliveries was tantamount to not supporting Israel.
“I would submit to you that pausing or delaying the delivery of weapons to Israel is a decision, and it’s a decision that most members of Congress would take issue with,” she said.
