Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended President Joe Biden‘s refusal to supply Israel with certain weapons if the Jewish State goes into Rafah.
Israel’s imminent operation into Rafah — the final Hamas stronghold in Gaza — has been a sticking point for the Biden administration since it was proposed months ago. Blinken discussed Biden’s “red line” for withholding some weapons while speaking on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
“First, we have been holding back, and we’re in active conversations with Israel about the provision of heavy or high payload weapons of large bombs because of the concern that we have about the effect these weapons can have when they’re used in a dense urban environment — like Rafah. We’re discussing that with Israel right now,” Blinken said.
He also added that should Israel continue with a “major military operation” in Rafah, there will be “certain systems’ the United States will not help Israel with. Blinken did not say which systems the U.S. would suspend aiding but did detail why they would do those actions.
“It’s something that we do not want to be part of given the damage that it would do to civilians, and, again, not to achieve durable, lasting, effective result for Israel and for its security. That’s what the president said, we’ve said that in conversations with our Israeli partners,” Blinken said. “It’s unfortunate that that leaked out but the President responded forthrightly to a question when he was asked about it.”
The secretary of state did reiterate that while Biden does not support a Rafah operation, the administration does share Israel’s goal of fully taking Hamas out of power.
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“We share Israel’s objective of making sure that Hamas cannot govern Gaza anymore, that it be demilitarized, that Israel get its leaders, we continue to support that, but there’s a better way of achieving that. Then going headlong into into Rafah,” Blinken said.
The war between Israel and Hamas began just over seven months ago when Hamas terrorists committed multiple attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.