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Biden Says He Will Stop Sending Bombs and Artillery Shells to Israel If It Launches Major Invasion of Rafah
(CNN) Kevin Liptak - President Joe Biden told CNN on Wednesday that he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel if it launches a major invasion of the city of Rafah. "Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers," referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week. "I made it clear that if they go into Rafah - they haven't gone in Rafah yet - if they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities - that deal with that problem....I've made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They're not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers." The president's announcement that he was prepared to condition American weaponry on Israel's actions amounts to a turning point in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Until now, the president had strongly supported Israel's efforts to go after Hamas. "We're not walking away from Israel's security. We're walking away from Israel's ability to wage war in those areas," Biden said. "We're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently. But...we're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells." Israeli officials privately expressed to U.S. officials "deep frustration" on the pause in shipments as well as the U.S. media briefings on the decision.