Biden: Rafah invasion will end weapons shipments to Israel

United States President Joe Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that he will stop sending weapon shipments to Israel if it launches a full-scale invasion of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” Biden said, referring to 2,000-pound bombs that he halted shipments of last week. He emphasised that he “made it clear” to Israel that if it invades Rafah, he will stop supplying the weapons that have “historically been used to deal with Rafah.”

“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,” he said, stressing, nevertheless, that other weapons shipments will end should a major Rafah invasion begin.