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US Paused Weapons Shipment to Israel Over Rafah Operation Concerns, Pentagon Chief Confirms
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies before a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on US President Joe Biden’s proposed budget request for the Department of Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, April 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday confirmed that the Biden administration halted the delivery of high payload munitions to Israel due to concerns over a possible Israeli military offensive in the Gaza city of Rafah.
“We’ve been very clear … from the beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack in Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians in that battle space,” Austin testified during a hearing of the US Senate Appropriations Committee.
According to US officials, the weapons delivery in question was supposed to contain 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs. Austin said on Wednesday that the US paused “one shipment of high payload munitions” without elaborating on the size or number of munitions.
Austin was the first senior Biden administration official to publicly outline a possible shift in US policy on arming Israel. The US is a close ally of Israel and its biggest arms supplier.
The paused delivery was the first time the US held up a weapons shipment for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that rules Gaza, launched the ongoing war when it invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, murdering 1,200 people and abducting 252 others as hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and incapacitating Hamas to the point that it can longer pose a major threat to the Israeli people from neighboring Gaza, a Palestinian enclave home to over 2 million people.
The US has been consistently supplying Israel with weapons since October. However, under heavy pressure from Democrats and progressive activists to oppose Israel’s war effort, President Joe Biden has adopted an increasingly critical posture toward the Jewish state. That transition peaked last month, when Biden threatened to pull back support for Israel due to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Austin argued on Wednesday that Israel didn’t need large bombs in a dense urban setting like Rafah.
A “small-diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, it’s very useful in a dense, built-up environment … but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage,” Austin said.
“We’ve not made a final determination on how to proceed with that shipment,” he added.
The US has sought to pressure Israel to forgo a significant military operation in Rafah, citing the potential for civilian casualties; Jerusalem has countered that a ground offensive is necessary to eliminate Hamas’ remaining battalions in the southern Gaza city.
Experts have told The Algemeiner that Israel must operate in Rafah, which Israeli officials have described as Hamas’ last bastion in Gaza, if the Jewish state wishes to achieve its war objective of eliminating the threat posed by the Palestinian terrorist group.
Israel this week began limited operations in Rafah, but it remains unclear when and if a full-scale military offensive will take place. Israeli forces have sent leaflets and other forms of messages to civilians in Gaza, urging them to evacuate to a humanitarian safe zone.
Austin stressed that US support for Israel is “ironclad.”
“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Austin said. “But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”
Republican lawmakers lambasted Austin and the Biden administration for the decision.
“If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the State of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price,” said US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who argued Washington shouldn’t second-guess how Israel waged a war against Islamist terrorists committed to its destruction. “This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need.”
Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Mike Rogers (R-AL) — the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, respectively — also slammed the Biden administration’s move.
“We are appalled that the administration paused crucial arms shipments to Israel. Withholding arms to Israel weakens Israel’s deterrence against Iran and its proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “At a time when Israel continues to negotiate in good faith to secure the release of hostages, including American citizens, the administration’s shortsighted, strategic error calls into question its ‘unshakeable commitment’ as an ally. The administration must allow these arms shipments to move forward to uphold the United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and ensure that Israel can defend itself and defeat Hamas.”
Israeli officials have reportedly expressed “deep frustration” with the Biden administration over the weapons shipment pause. However, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that the allies will resolve such issues “behind closed doors,” adding that coordination between the US and Israel has reached “a scope without precedent, I think, in history.”
The post US Paused Weapons Shipment to Israel Over Rafah Operation Concerns, Pentagon Chief Confirms first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.