Billions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry remain in the pipeline for Israel despite the delay of one shipment of bombs and a review of others by U.S. President Joe Biden's administration amid concern that their use in an assault could wreak more devastation on Palestinian civilians.
A senior U.S. official said this week that the administration had reviewed the delivery of weapons that Israel might use for a major invasion of Rafah, a southern city in the Gaza Strip where over 1 million civilians have sought refuge, and as a result paused a shipment of bombs to Israel.
Washington has long urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government not to invade Rafah without safeguards for civilians, seven months into a war that has devastated Gaza.