Rafah struck after Biden warned on arms transfers

Smoke rose from attacks on the crowded southern Gaza town of Rafah on Thursday after US President Joe Biden vowed to stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons to Israel if a full-scale offensive took place in the city.

It was the strongest warning yet from Israel’s main military contractor about the civilian impact of its war against Palestinian Hamas militants.

An AFP correspondent and witnesses reported strikes on Thursday in several parts of Rafah, where the United Nations said 1.4 million people were seeking refuge.

“The tanks and fighter jets are striking,” Tarek Bahlul said earlier on a deserted street in Rafah. “You hear a rocket every minute and you don’t know where it’s going to land.”

Israel has already defied international objections by sending tanks and carrying out so-called “targeted raids” in the eastern area of ​​Rafah, the city where Hamas’s last remaining battalions are said to be based.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden warned he would halt some U.S. arms sales to Israel if the country continues its long-threatened major ground offensive in Rafah.

Israel described Biden’s comments on Thursday as “very disappointing.”

Biden told CNN: “If they move in Rafah, I will not deliver the weapons that were used … to deal with the cities.” He added: “We will not deliver the weapons and artillery shells that were used.”

Asked about Israel’s actions in Rafah, Biden said “they didn’t go to the population centers.”

– Bomb delivery stopped –

The new warning came after his government suspended delivery of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs last week as Israel appeared poised to attack Rafah.

“As a result of these bombs, civilians have been killed in Gaza,” Biden said. “It’s just wrong.”

Relations between the allies are becoming increasingly tense as Biden and other senior Washington officials criticize Israel over its conduct of the war.

Pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campuses across the United States and around the world at levels not seen in decades.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During their attack in October, militants captured Israeli and foreign hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in the Gaza Strip, including 36 who the military says are dead.

In response, Israel promised to dismantle Hamas and release the prisoners. They launched a military offensive that killed at least 34,904 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

– More deaths –

The ministry reported on Thursday at least 60 more deaths in the last 24 hours. Since Israel ordered the evacuation of residents of eastern Rafah on Monday, the daily reported death toll has topped 50, down from a peak of 33 in early May.

The United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Thursday that 80,000 people had fled Rafah since Monday but “nowhere is safe.”

On Tuesday, Israel occupied the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which served as the main entry point for aid deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip.

The White House condemned the aid disruption, and the defense secretary later confirmed that Washington had halted the bomb shipment.

In Israel’s initial response to Biden’s threat, its ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called it a “very disappointing statement.”

“If Israel is prevented from entering an area as important and central as Rafah, where thousands of terrorists, hostages and Hamas leaders are located, how exactly are we supposed to achieve our objectives?” he said on public radio.

Ari Tolany, who tracks arms trafficking for the progressive Center for International Policy, doubted the halt would have “immediate operational impact” but said it sent a message to Israel not to drop 2,000-pound bombs, as it already has did in the war.

The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that it would reopen another key aid crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, as well as the Erez crossing into the northern Gaza Strip.

But it was unclear whether the aid was reaching the area where the World Food Program chief said famine had already begun.

– Living in a caravan –

UNRWA said the Kerem Shalom border crossing – which Israel closed after a rocket attack killed four soldiers on Sunday – remained closed.

Late Wednesday, the army said a soldier was slightly injured when rockets again targeted the Kerem Shalom area.

The Hamas authorities’ “Emergency Committee” in Rafah said on Thursday that Israel’s “control of the Rafah crossing and its closure, as well as the halt to aid and fuel deliveries, threaten to deepen the humanitarian, environmental and health catastrophe.”

The committee rejected Israel’s description of its Rafah operation as “limited” as “nothing but lies.”

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip only had three days’ worth of fuel.

Fuel is crucial to relief operations, not just for powering hospital equipment but also for moving aid workers and running bakeries, said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories.

Mazen al-Shami said she was fed up as she spoke between metal trailers where some families in Rafah had set up a small refugee camp.

“We don’t have money and we don’t have the means to keep moving from one place to another. We have no resources at all,” said Shami.

In addition to the attacks in Rafah, the Israeli military said on Thursday that airstrikes hit around 25 targets in the Zeitun area of ​​Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip.

Talks between Qatari, US and Hamas delegations to cement a long-stalled ceasefire deal would continue in Cairo on Thursday, Al-Qahera News, affiliated with Egyptian intelligence, said.

Citing an informed source, it added that Islamic Jihad, which fights alongside Hamas, and the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were also involved and were “open” to an agreement.

Al-Qahera said efforts were underway to “resolve points of contention in the negotiations.”