The US withholds arms deliveries to Israel – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

The AP news agency refers to a high-ranking official in the Biden administration as the source of the information.

According to the Washington Post, the reason is that the Americans are concerned that the bombs will be dropped on the town of Rafah.

Also from the Israeli side, similar information has been given to the website Axios from unnamed officials.

According to Axios, it is the first time since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October that the US has stopped a weapons delivery to the Israeli military.

Sources tell AP and AFP that no final decision has been made whether the bombs will be sent later or not.

Concern for use in Rafah

The weapons delivery that was stopped should have been 1,800 bombs of 900 kilograms each and 1,700 bombs of 225 kilograms to the Israeli defense.

The AP writes that the US rarely used the 900-kilogram bomb in the long-running war against the extremist jihadist group IS, while Israel has used it regularly in the seven months of attacks against the Gaza Strip.

According to the AP source, the Americans were most concerned about how the bombs would be used in populous urban areas such as Rafah, a city which before the war housed 280,000 people.

Now more than 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge there after fleeing from other parts of the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Israel took control of the Rafah border, closing the Gaza Strip’s last avenues for emergency aid. They have not confirmed that this is the start of a long-announced ground invasion of the city, but several experts believe that it is.

The head of the Norwegian Armed Forces’ military academy, Sigbjørn Halsne, told NRK that war inside cities is the scenario for civilians.

– Hamas uses the population in Gaza quite cynically. They operate in civilian areas and close to the civilian population, thus exposing them to a great risk, he says.

In the White House, concern about what is happening in Rafah is growing now, according to the Washington Post.

– A large-scale operation in the densely populated parts of Rafah will increase the risk of injured and dead civilians. We have repeatedly expressed that to the IDF, John Kirby told AP earlier this week.

Press ceasefire negotiations

At the same time as the Israeli government is defying American opposition, this week they have rejected a ceasefire proposal that Hamas has agreed to.

Sigbjørn Halsne sees the invasion of Rafah both as a real act and as part of the negotiations on a ceasefire agreement.

– War is politics and the two things are probably very closely related, says Halsne.

The negotiations, which are taking place in Cairo, broke down on Sunday. But on Tuesday they started up again. They involve Israel, Hamas, the USA, Qatar and Egypt.

According to a poll in the Israeli media Kanal13, 56 percent of Israelis believe that Netanyahu is more concerned with political survival than getting the hostages out.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said yesterday that they were willing to compromise on the idea of ​​completely destroying Hamas in exchange for more hostages.

John Kirby expressed optimism for the negotiations on Tuesday evening, according to AP.

– We think they are able to approach each other, and we will do everything we can to help them in that process, he said.