[News] US approves bombs, jets for Israel amid threat of offensive in Gaza’s Rafah

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 US approves bombs, jets for Israel amid threat of offensive in Gaza’s Rafah

*White House authorises transfer of $2.5bn of warplanes and weapons to
Israel, The Washington Post reports.*
[image: People recover the body of a child from a destroyed building
following Israeli air strikes]
People recover a child's body from a destroyed building following Israeli
air strikes in Rafah, Gaza, on March 29, 2024 [Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty
Images]

Published On 30 Mar 2024 -
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/30/us-approves-bombs-jets-for-israel-amid-threat-of-offensive-in-gazas-rafah
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The United States has greenlighted the transfer of billions of dollars
worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel, The Washington Post reported,
even as it publicly expresses concerns about the long-threatened Israeli
invasion
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/18/biden-warns-netanyahu-against-mistake-of-invading-rafah-white-house>
of Gaza’s Rafah and the rising civilian casualties
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-fears-grow-of-wider-conflict-after-deadly-strike>
in the enclave.

The new arms package includes more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and
500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and Department of State
officials, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The 2,000-pound bombs, which can inflict damage to people up to 1,000 feet
(300 metres) away, have been “linked to previous mass-casualty events
throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza”, the report said. The US
gives $3.8bn in annual military assistance to its longtime ally.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said the
transfer “amounts to about $2.5bn”, adding that “this is taking place
despite a growing rift between both the Israeli and US governments”.

The US continues to provide weapons packages
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/18/the-west-is-giving-israel-weapons-while-discussing-delivering-aid-to-gaza>
to Israel while pushing for an end to hostilities in the five-month war and
on Monday did not veto
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/25/un-security-council-adopts-resolution-calling-for-immediate-gaza-ceasefire>
a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate
ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of captives.

While Washington is publicly pressuring Israel to “dial back” its war in
Gaza <https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israel-palestine-conflict/>, its policy
moves are sending an entirely different signal, Marc Owen Jones, associate
professor of Middle East studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, told Al
Jazeera.

In the face of widespread international condemnation, including from
Washington, Israel has said it will soon launch a ground invasion of Rafah,
the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip that borders Egypt and where about
1.5 million forcibly displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

On Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised the US,
posting on X that “demanding [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to
stop killing civilians and supplying him with weapons is an unprecedented
principled and moral contradiction”.

The ministry expressed regret at the “ongoing failure” on the part of the
UN Security Council and of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to
bring Israel to respect their decisions.

US senators have urged President Joe Biden to cut military aid
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/12/us-senators-call-on-biden-to-condition-israel-aid-on-humanitarian-access>
to Israel until it ensures access to humanitarian aid for Gaza. Many
countries and rights groups have called for Israel to obey an ICJ
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/29/world-warns-israel-to-obey-icj-on-gaza-aid-as-netanyahu-plans-rafah-assault>
order to allow the unimpeded delivery of aid into Gaza, where famine has
set in.

US Senator Bernie Sanders slammed the move as “obscene”.

“The US cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next
send him thousands more 2,000-pound bombs that can level entire city
blocks,” he said in a post on X.

“We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel.”

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called on the international
community to stop supplying Israel with weapons.

“UN agencies are telling horror stories of suffering in Gaza. Over 30,000
killed. Over two million people starved. These facts shame the world,” he
posted on X.

“Weapons must stop flowing to Israel. Israel must be forced to end this
catastrophe. This is what international law, what human values, demand,” he
said.

The White House declined to comment on the weapons transfers.
‘Business as usual’

Biden on Friday acknowledged “the pain being felt” by many Arab Americans
over the war in Gaza. Still, he has promised continued support for Israel
despite an increasingly public rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.

Netanyahu abruptly cancelled a planned meeting between US and Israeli
officials to review Israeli plans for an operation in Rafah, following
Washington’s abstention from the Security Council vote.

In a sharp reversal, he requested for the meeting to be rescheduled
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/28/israel-seeks-new-date-for-cancelled-us-meeting-on-rafah-offensive-plans>,
and it is expected to take place as early as Monday, broadcaster CNN
reported.

The unfettered assistance to Israel, which aid groups say is hindering aid
to Gaza
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/29/world-warns-israel-to-obey-icj-on-gaza-aid-as-netanyahu-plans-rafah-assault>
as famine-like conditions spread, is undermining Biden’s efforts to
reposition the US as a “moral authority in the world,” Owen Jones told Al
Jazeera.

“We need to bear in mind that just a few weeks ago, the US passed a federal
funding bill that both reaffirms military aid to Israel with over $3bn and
cuts funding to UNRWA
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/1/what-is-unrwa-and-why-it-is-important-for-palestinians>,”
the main group providing aid in Gaza, he said, referring to the UN Relief
and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.

“The US’s policy is actually just business as usual.

“Biden is breaking, or at least not enforcing, the Leahy Laws,” he said,
referring to US human rights laws that bar the US from supplying weapons to
countries plausibly engaged in rights abuses.

“How is Biden going to position himself as any kind of moral authority when
he is contravening laws that are meant to defend the human rights of people
like those in Palestine?”

Reporting from Rafah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that Israel’s threats
of expanding the ground invasion to Rafah City “are exhausting people here
who are tired of living in a state of panic”.

The fear Rafah will suffer the same fate as Gaza City or Khan Younis,
“whose public facilities and infrastructure have been obliterated”.
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