The president of United States, Joe Bidenhas threatened for the first time with stop supplying Israel with offensive weaponswhich he acknowledges has been used to kill civilians in the Gaza Stripif Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders to invade the southern city of Rafah.

“I made it clear that if they enter Rafahthey haven’t entered yet, I will not supply the weapons that historically have been used to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem,” the president said in an interview this Wednesday on the network ‘cnn‘.

Specifically, Biden has specified that, if Israel invades Rafah, it will stop sending US offensive weapons, such as artillery and bombs for fightersbut what will continue to supply its ally with defensive material for the Iron Dome anti-missile system, in line with its commitment to the defense of Israel.

Furthermore, for the first time, Biden has acknowledged that US weapons have been used by Israel to kill civilians in the Gaza Strip, where more than 34,000 people have been killed since the war began in October. “Civilians have died in Gaza as a result of these bombs and because of the way in which the centers where there is population are attacked,” he stated.

Biden’s statements come after the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, confirmed this Wednesday in a Senate hearing press reports that Washington had stopped the shipment of a large arms package which contained high explosives fear of how they might be used in densely populated areas.

So far, Biden had resisted threatening to suspend arms shipments to Israel, his greatest asset to pressure Netanyahu, with whom he has publicly expressed his disagreement on the strategy for Rafah, where there are 1.4 million Palestinians who have fled other parts of the enclave due to the Israeli offensive.

Netanyahu, however, has insisted on its desire to invade Rafah because he assures that Hamas militiamen are hiding there. With that objective, The Israeli Army began a military operation last Monday for which he ordered the evacuation of some 100,000 people. The US Government has assured that this Israeli operation in Gaza has a “limited scope” and that It is not about the “large scale invasion” which he has been warning against for months.

Biden echoed that reasoning this Wednesday, arguing that the Israeli operation has not yet been directed against the urban centers of Rafah. “They have not entered population centers. What they did was next to the border. And it is causing problems with Egypt, which I have worked hard with to ensure that we have a relationship and can help,” she noted.

In addition, he has assured that he has conveyed to Netanyahu, whom he usually refers to by his nickname ‘Bibi’, and other Israeli leaders that US support for operations in population centers is limited. “I have made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They will not receive our support if they go within these urban centers“, he warned.

United States is the Israel’s main arms supplier and one of his strongest allies. Between 2016 and 2023, 69% of the weapons imported by Israel came from the North American country, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Israel calls Biden’s announcement “very disappointing”

He permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, has described the announcement made by the president of the United States as “very disappointing.” “It is difficult and very disappointing to hear these statements from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war,” Erdan said in statements given to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan, in reference to the offensive unleashed against Gaza after the attacks carried out on October 7 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

“I do not attribute bad intentions to the presidentbut I think it is quite clear that any pressure or restrictions on Israel, even from close allies who want the best for us, are interpreted by our enemies, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, as something that gives them hope when it comes to achieve their objectives,” he argued.

Thus, Erdan has maintained that Biden’s announcement “could give courage” to “the enemies of the Jewish people and the State of Israel”before emphasizing that he does not rule out that Israel expands its operation in Rafah – after taking over the Palestinian side of the border crossing on Tuesday and after months of bombing – despite Biden’s announcement.

“These are decisions that the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and the war cabinet will have to make. I am not aware that alternatives to the operation in Rafah have been presented that would allow Hamas to be overthrown and create a future and a horizon, including of course the release of the hostages, without entering Rafah,” he defended.

“If Israel is restricted from entering an area as important and central as Rafah, where thousands of terrorists, hostages and Hamas leaders are still present, how exactly is the goal of destroying Hamas going to be achieved?” asked Israel’s permanent representative to the UN.