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<h1>US approves bombs, jets for Israel amid threat of offensive in Gaza’s Rafah</h1><p><i>White House authorises transfer of $2.5bn of warplanes and weapons to Israel, The Washington Post reports.</i></p><div><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GettyImages-2121839114-1711713980.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="People recover the body of a child from a destroyed building following Israeli air strikes" width="395" height="263" style="margin-right: 0px;"></div><div>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]</div><div><br></div><div><div style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div><span>Published On 30 Mar 2024</span> - <font size="1"><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/30/us-approves-bombs-jets-for-israel-amid-threat-of-offensive-in-gazas-rafah">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/30/us-approves-bombs-jets-for-israel-amid-threat-of-offensive-in-gazas-rafah</a></font></div></div></div><div><div></div></div></div><div><span role="tooltip"></span></div><a rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fddfkwb" target="_blank"></a><a rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=US%20approves%20bombs%2C%20jets%20for%20Israel%20amid%20threat%20of%20offensive%20in%20Gaza%E2%80%99s%20Rafah&source=sharethiscom&related=sharethis&via=AJEnglish&url=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fddfkwb" target="_blank"></a><a rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Copy link" href="https://aje.io/ddfkwb" target="_blank"><span></span></a><p>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 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/18/biden-warns-netanyahu-against-mistake-of-invading-rafah-white-house" target="_blank">Israeli invasion</a> of Gaza’s Rafah and the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/30/israels-war-on-gaza-live-fears-grow-of-wider-conflict-after-deadly-strike" target="_blank">rising civilian casualties</a> in the enclave.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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”.</p>
<p>The US continues to provide <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/18/the-west-is-giving-israel-weapons-while-discussing-delivering-aid-to-gaza" target="_blank">weapons packages</a> to Israel while pushing for an end to hostilities in the five-month war and on Monday <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/25/un-security-council-adopts-resolution-calling-for-immediate-gaza-ceasefire" target="_blank">did not veto</a> a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of captives.</p>
<p>While Washington is publicly pressuring Israel to “dial back” its <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israel-palestine-conflict/" target="_blank">war in Gaza</a>,
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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”.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>US senators have urged President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/12/us-senators-call-on-biden-to-condition-israel-aid-on-humanitarian-access" target="_blank">to cut military aid</a>
to Israel until it ensures access to humanitarian aid for Gaza. Many
countries and rights groups have called for Israel to obey an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/29/world-warns-israel-to-obey-icj-on-gaza-aid-as-netanyahu-plans-rafah-assault" target="_blank">ICJ</a> order to allow the unimpeded delivery of aid into Gaza, where famine has set in.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>US Senator Bernie Sanders slammed the move as “obscene”.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel.”</p>
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<p>Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called on the international community to stop supplying Israel with weapons.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>The White House declined to comment on the weapons transfers.</p>
<h2 id="m_5372254510742121476gmail-business-as-usual">‘Business as usual’</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>In a sharp reversal, he requested for the meeting <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/28/israel-seeks-new-date-for-cancelled-us-meeting-on-rafah-offensive-plans" target="_blank">to be rescheduled</a>, and it is expected to take place as early as Monday, broadcaster CNN reported.</p>
<p>The unfettered assistance to Israel, which aid groups say is <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/29/world-warns-israel-to-obey-icj-on-gaza-aid-as-netanyahu-plans-rafah-assault" target="_blank">hindering aid to Gaza</a>
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.</p>
<p>“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 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/1/what-is-unrwa-and-why-it-is-important-for-palestinians" target="_blank">UNRWA</a>,”
the main group providing aid in Gaza, he said, referring to the UN
Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.</p>
<p>“The US’s policy is actually just business as usual.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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?”</p>
<p>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”.</p>
<p>The fear Rafah will suffer the same fate as Gaza City or Khan Younis,
“whose public facilities and infrastructure have been obliterated”.</p>
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