Israel has begun limited military operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, to which more than 1 million Palestinians have fled during the war, prompting the Biden administration to halt a military aid delivery of bombs to the Jewish state.
The Israel Defense Forces had held off on ground military operations in Rafah for several weeks at the request of the United States, but they issued evacuation orders for people in eastern parts of Rafah following a deadly Hamas attack last weekend near the border crossing that serves as the primary entry point for humanitarian aid.
Simultaneously, it does not appear that Israel and Hamas are about to come to a ceasefire agreement, though mediators continue to pursue a deal.
Limited Israeli operations in Rafah
Israeli forces, over the last couple of days, urged tens of thousands of civilians to evacuate from parts of Rafah and began conducting more operations targeting Hamas in the area.
“The forces began targeted raids on the terrorist infrastructure surrounding the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing and raids on suspicious buildings in the area from which Hamas terrorists fired at our forces,” an IDF spokesperson said in a statement, which also indicated that about 30 terrorists were killed.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said its tanks had entered Rafah and seized control of the city’s border crossing with Egypt, which has long been thought to be a place where Hamas could smuggle goods, weapons, and people in or out of the strip. The spokesperson described it as a limited operation to eliminate the Hamas fighters and infrastructure that had been used to attack and kill four Israeli soldiers at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday.
Hamas also launched projectiles toward the border crossing on Tuesday, although no casualties were reported.
The U.S. and several other countries have explicitly denounced Israel’s intention to carry out ground operations in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge from the war. These officials have warned that Israel’s operations could result in a large number of civilian casualties if its military does not completely and comprehensively account for the civilian population.
Despite multiple meetings between American and Israeli officials, the U.S. side could not convince Israel that it could accomplish its goals without a full ground invasion, and the Israelis could not persuade the U.S. to support the operation.
The U.S. has paused a weapons shipment of bombs due to the situation in Rafah.
Humanitarian aid
The U.S. has pushed Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza for several months. The Israelis reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Wednesday, though logistical hurdles prevented aid from actually getting through, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
It had been closed for a couple of days after the deadly Hamas attack. This crossing, the primary point for humanitarian aid to get into Gaza, is near Rafah, and full-scale military operations there would likely shut down or further limit aid distribution in the area.
“The Rafah area is the center for the distribution of humanitarian assistance, most of the distribution of humanitarian assistance in Gaza, both because that’s where the civilian population is and because that’s where they moved,” Miller said. “And also because that’s where the two principal crossings that have been open for months now also exist, and so there is no way to replace the delivery of humanitarian assistance through Rafah and Kerem Shalom, and then the network that has been set up inside Gaza headquartered in Rafah that would be severely disrupted, severely jeopardized by kinetic action.”
An overwhelming majority of Gaza residents have been displaced and are now sheltering in Rafah. Those who stayed in the north against the Israeli military’s evacuation orders are now facing more dire humanitarian effects.
“There is full-blown famine in the north, and it’s moving its way south,” World Food Programme Director Cindy McCain said last week.
The U.S. military has completed the construction of both a pier and causeway in the Mediterranean Sea that will, when fully installed, be used to get more aid to Gaza via the maritime route. The weather is holding up the installation of the causeway.
Aid will be loaded onto ships in Cyprus, where it will then be transported to the floating pier. The aid will be offloaded by U.S. troops and placed onto smaller naval support vessels, which will then transport the aid to the causeway. The aid will be offloaded and driven by truck down the causeway, not by U.S. forces, and then distributed in Gaza.
US military aid to Israel
The U.S. has provided Israel with billions of dollars of military aid since Oct. 7, 2023, but its concerns over Israel’s operations in Rafah have prompted the administration to pause a shipment of bombs due to concerns they could be deployed in the densely populated area.
The U.S. is “currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during a congressional subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
“A small-diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, it’s very useful in a dense, built-up environment,” Austin added. “It is helpful, but maybe not so much, a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage. 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. And we would also like to see them do more precise operations. Now, you know, I don’t doubt that they have some very good policies, and they do. But it’s important to make sure that we’re following the policies.”
Austin explained that they have not “made any final decisions” yet and could still provide this aid to the Israelis, though he did not specify when a final determination would be made.
Miller said Wednesday the administration “paused one shipment of near-term assistance, and we are reviewing others.”
The pause has prompted criticism from the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who called the decision “obscene.”
The State Department was supposed to submit a report to Congress by Wednesday evaluating whether it finds Israel’s assurances that it does not use U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. or international law credible, but it will not make that deadline.
On Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden signaled the U.S. will no longer provide Israel with bombs and artillery shells if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to launch a large-scale invasion of Rafah.
“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 — that deal with that problem,” Biden told CNN, conceding that “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs.”
Biden was summarily blasted for his decision by allies and critics alike. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) wrote that Biden’s comments were “deeply disappointing.” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) accused Biden of second-guessing Israel, saying his “dithering on Israel weapons is bad policy and a terrible message to Israel, our allies, and the world.”
On the other hand, progressive pro-Palestinian politicians, such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), celebrated the president’s decision, with the latter even pointing to the college protests that have swept the nation as having an effect on Biden’s action.
However, it remains to be seen whether Biden’s words will even have an impact on Israel’s operation, should the country move forward with it. The Israeli military has enough weapons supplied by the U.S. and other allies to move into Rafah if it decides to ignore the U.S.’s disagreements, a senior Biden administration official told the Washington Post.
Ceasefire
Qatari, Egyptian, and American officials continue to push Israeli and Hamas representatives to agree to a ceasefire agreement, as they have for several months.
Their efforts have taken on a new urgency with the Israeli military’s increase of operations and evacuation orders in Rafah, where they are concerned about the possibility of mass civilian casualties.
“Our assessment is that … the two sides, what remains, the gap that remains could be closed,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday on Air Force One en route to Wisconsin. “That’s what we believe, so we’re going to support that.”
Israel and Hamas have both held on to key nonstarters in their negotiations, preventing them from reaching a deal. One of the main sticking points is whether the ceasefire will be a temporary stoppage of fighting or an end to the conflict.
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Israeli leaders have maintained they want to go after Hamas in Rafah, the last remaining area of Gaza Israeli forces haven’t carried out operations to defeat the terrorist group.
Conrad Hoyt contributed to this article.
