Austin: US pauses shipment of payload munitions to Israel due to concerns over Rafah
- May 9, 2024
The United States paused one shipment to Israel of payload munitions due to concerns over Rafah, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Senate Appropriations Committee in Washington on Wednesday.
“We’ve been very clear,” Austin said, “that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack in Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians in that battle space.”
“As we have assessed the situation we paused one shipment of high payload munitions,” he said, in the first public acknowledgment that the growing tension between the two countries over Gaza was implicating US military assistance to Israel.
“We've also been very clear about the steps that we want to see Israel take” to protect civilians in a major combat situation, he explained. The US doesn’t want such a major IDF combat operation to take place, but if it does proceed, “our focus is on making sure that we protect the civilians.”
He said the pause in arms did not impact the $26 billion in supplemental aid that Congress approved last month.
The US, he said, remains committed to supporting Israel’s security and its right to self-defense.
“Our commitment to Israel is ironclad,” and the US has flown billions in security assistance to Israel, and “we will continue to do what is necessary to support Israel,” he said.
At the Senate hearing on Wednesday Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) pushed back at Austin, asking if he would have supported the World War II decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Israel has been hit in the last few weeks by Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas dedicated to their destruction.
“And you're telling me you're going to tell them how to fight the war and what they can and can't use when everybody around them wants to kill all the Jews,” Graham said his voice rising with the emotion of the moment.
“You're telling me that if we withhold weapons in this fight, the existential fight for the life of the Jewish state it won't send the wrong signal?” he asked.
“If we withhold weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril we will pay a price. This is obscene. It is absurd. Give them aid to fight the war they can't afford to lose,” he exclaimed.
Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) that the decision to pause a shipment of precision bombs that reduced the faulty count earmarked for Gaza, ran counter to the goal of protecting Palestinians while defeating Hamas.
“Those precision weapons will help them fully defeat Hamas with less impact on the civilian population in Gaza. So why would we not go ahead and get them those weapons just as fast as we can?” he asked.
“Clearly Congress intended to get Israel that assistance [of precision weapons]. And so we're watching very closely that you get that to them as expeditiously as possible so they can fully defeat Hamas,” Hoeven stated.
