Israel shells Rafah as Biden vows arms suspension

U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday he would stop U.S. weapons supplies to Israel if it attacks Rafah in southern Gaza, his most direct warning to date over the prosecution of the war against Hamas.

In an interview with CNN Biden also deplored the fact that civilians had been killed by the dropping of U.S. bombs on the Palestinian territory.

His fresh warning came after the U.S. last week halted a shipment of huge American bombs to Israel as it appeared ready to proceed with a major attack on Rafah — a city packed with Palestinian civilians sheltering near the Egyptian border.

"If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used... to deal with the cities," Biden said. "We're not gonna supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used."

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations said Biden's threat was "very disappointing".

"This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war," Gilad Erdan told Israeli public broadcaster Kan radio, in Israel's first reaction to Biden's warning.

Biden, a self-described Zionist, had long resisted stopping any of the $3 billion in weapons the United States sends each year to Israel — and pushed Congress for an increase in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the major Israeli retaliation.

But U.S. officials say privately that his hand was forced after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear he would go ahead with an assault on Rafah, defying Biden's public appeals to spare the city.

Under increasing pressure from the left of his own party to limit arms shipments, the Biden administration paused delivery last week of 1,800 2...