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Arms Embargo on Israel Could Lead to More Destruction in Gaza, Says West Point Urban Warfare Expert
Troops from the IDF’s 98th Division operating in Jabalia, the northern Gaza Strip, May 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces.
Imposing an arms embargo on Israel would strengthen the terrorist group Hamas, prolong the ongoing war in Gaza, and worsen the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave, according to John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern Warfare Institute.
US Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) hosted a discussion with Spencer on his podcast earlier this week about urban conflict around the world, and part of the conservation focused on the potential consequences of placing an arms embargo on Israel amid the Jewish state’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
During the discussion, Spencer argued that withholding weapons from Israel could have the unintended consequence of causing more death and destruction in Gaza. Spencer, who served in the US Army for 25 years and did two tours in Iraq, asserted that barring countries from using bombs, missiles, and mortars in urban locations such as Gaza will “drive war into populated areas.”
The urban warfare expert explained that implementing a weapons ban against the Jewish state would only incentivize Hamas to double-down on tactics that prolong the war and endanger the lives of civilians. He pointed out that heavy munitions, such as 2,000-pound bombs, are capable of penetrating the earth and collapsing underground tunnels, which Hamas has built and utilized to hide hostages, plan attacks, and use civilians as human shields. Therefore, Spencer argued, a ban on arms transfers to Israel would lead Hamas to build more tunnels underneath the besieged enclave.
Spencer suggested that a media-driven pressure campaign against Israel has resulted in a “restriction” on arms transfers to the Jewish state. He stated that the insistence from so-called “Western, moral, law-abiding countries” that Israel not use heavy weaponry in densely populated areas is at odds with the best urban warfare practices. Through hamstringing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Spencer argued these restrictions could allow Hamas to potentially turn a single building in Gaza into a “months-long battle.”
He also argued that depriving Israel of heavy bombs would force the Jewish state to unnecessarily put its own soldiers at risk to confront terrorists. Spencer claimed that Israel should be allowed to use heavy bombs as a “tool” to vanquish Hamas, assuming that the military is following “the law of proportionality, discrimination, distinction.”
Spencer has previously said that Israel has “followed the laws of war, legal obligations, best practices in civilian harm mitigation, and still found a way to reduce civilian casualties to historically low levels.”
Calls for enacting a US arms embargo against Israel have grown louder in recent months, with critics claiming that the Israeli military campaign has gone too far and created dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
Although demands for a weapons blockade against the Jewish state were originally stemmed from the most progressive corners of the US Congress, they have expanded to include many more traditionally moderate lawmakers. Last month, for example, 19 senators voted to implement a ban on sending Israel certain additional weapons, marking an unprecedented shift against the Jewish state among federal lawmakers.
More recently, a group of 20 Democratic lawmakers in the US House earlier this week sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urging the Biden administration to “suspend offensive weapons” to Israel due to the country’s military campaign in Gaza.
The letter came days after a group of 77 Democrats in the House sent a letter to Blinken and Austin demanding that the Biden administration provide an assessment of Israel’s “compliance with all relevant US policies and laws,” suggesting that the Middle East’s lone democracy and Washington’s closest ally in the region is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas, which rules Gaza, has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the Israeli military.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
The post Arms Embargo on Israel Could Lead to More Destruction in Gaza, Says West Point Urban Warfare Expert first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Spain Scraps Purchase of Israeli Bullets After Internal Pressure
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks to the media on the day of his meeting with Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris to discuss recognizing a Palestinian state, in Dublin, Ireland, April 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
The Spanish government has unilaterally cancelled a contract to purchase ammunition rounds for its police force from an Israeli firm, a government source said on Thursday, ceding to pressure from its hard-left junior coalition partner Sumar.
Spain, a long-time critic of Israel’s policies in the Palestinian territories, pledged in October 2023 to stop selling weapons to Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza and last year widened that commitment to include weapons purchases from Israel.
However, on April 17 as Spaniards geared up for the Easter holiday weekend, the government filed paperwork confirming the deal on the government tenders website.
The purchase, worth 6.6 million euros ($7.53 million), includes the acquisition of more than 15 million 9-mm rounds from Israel’s IMI Systems, owned by Elbit Systems and represented in Spain by Guardian LTD Israel.
The decision drew a sharp rebuke on Wednesday from coalition partner Sumar, with one of the groups within Sumar, Izquierda Unida, threatening to withdraw from the minority coalition government.
The Interior Ministry responded that it had been advised by the state attorney that breaking the contract would mean paying the full amount without receiving the shipment.
On Thursday, a government source said it had decided to stick to its October 2023 commitment not to provide Israeli companies with arms or revenue flows “and nor will it do so in future.”
The source said the Israeli company would be denied permission to import the defense material by the Spanish authorities on “public interest” grounds, the Interior Ministry would rescind the contract and government lawyers would respond to any subsequent legal claims.
Internal divisions over defense spending have already rattled the ruling coalition, threatening to deprive Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of precious votes in parliament to pass legislation.
On Tuesday, Sanchez further angered Sumar, a platform of left-wing parties that controls five ministries led by deputy premier Yolanda Diaz, by announcing a wider plan to boost defense spending by 10.47 billion euros to meet NATO targets.
The minority government has struggled to pass legislation since securing a new term by cobbling together an alliance of left-wing and regional separatist parties in 2023.
($1 = 0.8767 euros)
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Iran, France Signal Readiness for Nuclear Talks Amid US Negotiations
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attends a press conference following a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool via REUTERS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday he was ready to travel to Europe for talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, with France indicating European powers were also ready for dialogue if Tehran showed it was seriously engaged.
Iran is looking to build on the momentum of nuclear negotiations with the United States that resume in Oman on Saturday and after talks with Russia and China earlier this week. Its reach out to the European powers party to a 2015 nuclear deal suggests Tehran is keeping its options open.
Since September, Tehran and the three European powers, known as the E3, have already held several rounds of discussions over their ties and the nuclear issue.
The most recent in March were held at technical level, looking at the parameters of a future deal to secure a rollback of the nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.
European diplomats had said they were seeking a new meeting with Iran, although that appeared on ice when Tehran began indirect talks on its nuclear program with US President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this month.
Trump, who abandoned the 2015 pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
The third round of talks is due to be held on Saturday in Oman.
“Iran‘s relations with the E3 … have experienced ups and downs in recent history. Like it or not, they are currently down,” Araqchi wrote on X.
“I once again propose diplomacy. After my recent consultations in Moscow & Beijing, I am ready to take the first step with visits to Paris, Berlin & London … The ball is now in the E3’s court.”
The European powers, who have voiced concern about their coordination with Washington, have seen their ties with Iran worsen over other issues including its ballistic missile program, detention of foreign citizens, and support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.
THREAT OF RENEWED SANCTIONS
When asked about Araqchi’s comments, France’s foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said the E3 favored dialogue but wanted to see how serious Iran was.
“The only solution is a diplomatic solution, and Iran must resolutely engage in this path and it’s a proposal the E3 have put forward many times, so we will continue dialogue with the Iranians,” he told a news conference.
The United States did not tell European countries about the nuclear talks in Oman before Trump announced them, even though they hold a key card on the possible reimposition of UN sanctions on Tehran.
However, according to two European diplomats, the US lead technical negotiator Michael Anton briefed E3 diplomats in Paris on April 17, suggesting that coordination has improved.
The West suspects Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, which it denies. The threat of renewed sanctions is intended to pressure Tehran into concessions, making detailed discussions on strategy between the Americans and Europeans vital, diplomats say.
Because the United States quit the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, it cannot initiate its mechanism for reimposing sanctions, called snapback, at the United Nations Security Council.
That makes Britain, Germany, and France, known as the E3, the only deal participants capable of and interested in pursuing snapback.
According to diplomats, the E3 diplomats are now looking to trigger snapback by August as opposed to an earlier June timeframe, if no substantial deal can be found by then. That opportunity expires on Oct. 18 when the 2015 accord ends.
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Lebanon Reprimands Iran Envoy Over Comments on Hezbollah Disarmament
Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani attends a press conference at the Iranian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, July 31, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanon‘s foreign ministry reprimanded Tehran’s ambassador to Beirut on Thursday over comments alleging that plans to disarm Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah were a “conspiracy.”
Hezbollah is under mounting pressure to relinquish its arsenal after a 2024 conflict with Israel badly weakened it and left much of southern Lebanon in ruins.
President Joseph Aoun is expected to begin talks with the group on disarmament, seen for years as a taboo subject because of the group’s sway over the Lebanese state.
On April 18, Iran‘s Ambassador to Beirut Mojtaba Amani posted on X that “the disarmament project is a clear conspiracy.”
“We in the Islamic Republic of Iran are aware of the danger of this conspiracy … we warn others not to fall into the trap of enemies,” he wrote.
On Thursday, Lebanon‘s foreign ministry said it had summoned Amani “due to his recent public stances” and that top ministry official Hani Shmaytelli “informed him of the need to adhere to diplomatic protocols … on the sovereignty of states and non-interference in their internal affairs.”
Amani told Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed on Wednesday that he had been summoned specifically over the X post, but that he had missed that first appointment — resulting in him being summoned again on Thursday.
Criticism of Iran by top Lebanese officials was unusual for years, particularly given Tehran’s sponsorship of Hezbollah.
Last year, then-prime minister Najib Mikati made a rare rebuke to Iran and said Amani should be summoned over reported comments by a senior Iranian official.
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