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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">President Biden</a> said Wednesday that he would halt the shipment of U.S. offensive weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if the country moves ahead with a long-planned ground invasion of the city of Rafah — the first time he has threatened to withhold U.S. military aid and the most direct warning he has issued to Israel in the seven-month war.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN, referring to 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States. “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 the cities.”

Biden added that the United States would continue to provide Israel defensive weapons, including those for the Iron Dome anti-missile system, so it can protect itself from attacks like <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/13/iran-israel-drone-missile-attack/" target=_blank>the one launched by Iran last month</a>. But he made it clear that supplying offensive weapons for a major incursion into the civilian areas of Rafah was off the table.

“It’s just wrong. We’re not going to — we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used,” Biden said. “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.” Bibi is the nickname of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose relationship with Biden has become testier as the Gaza conflict has unfolded.

Biden’s statements were a remarkable shift for the president, who has long had a visceral attachment to Israel and has resisted mounting pressure from prominent Democrats and key parts of his base to impose conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel or suspend it altogether.

Since the outset of the war in October, Netanyahu has repeatedly defied U.S. demands on major issues, rejecting Biden’s requests that he do more to protect civilians and that he accept the notion of a future Palestinian state. But the president has been loath to impose direct consequences, even as the death toll mounts in Gaza and Israel refuses to allow in more humanitarian aid to ease catastrophic conditions in the enclave.

Biden’s tone and message toward Israel have become increasingly sharp, however, while student protests against his support of Israel’s military campaign have erupted on campuses across the country. Wednesday’s comments were in a sense a culmination of that shift in tone.

Israel has taken a number of actions in recent days that have raised fears among U.S. officials that the Israel Defense Forces are preparing for a major Rafah operation. It <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/07/rafah-israel-gaza-egypt-crossing/" target=_blank>seized the Rafah border crossing</a> between Egypt and Gaza, cutting off the main artery for humanitarian aid. Israel also warned more than 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate the city, even as aid groups have warned that there is no place left in Gaza with the infrastructure to support such an influx.

On Wednesday, Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Israel had not yet crossed his “red line” on a Rafah invasion because the IDF had not yet gone into the city’s major population centers. Israeli strikes in Rafah in recent days have killed dozens of civilians, but its forces have not launched a full-scale invasion.

Biden and his top aides have expended most of their energy in recent months <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/29/gaza-israel-ceasefire-hostages-blinken/" target=_blank>trying to reach a cease-fire</a> that would halt the fighting for several weeks and provide for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/israel-hamas-war/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Hamas</a> militants. Diplomats and those familiar with the discussions say hope is dimming that an agreement between Israel and Hamas can be reached, however, and Netanyahu has vowed to forge ahead with a Rafah invasion regardless of whether a deal is struck.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel’s siege of the enclave has also created dire humanitarian conditions as the territory’s health-care and food distribution systems have collapsed. The United Nations says northern Gaza is in the throes of a full-blown famine, and the lack of clean water and basic necessities, combined with densely packed tent cities, has led to the spread of disease and hunger.

Israel launched its campaign after Hamas militants stormed through the Israel-Gaza border on Oct. 7 and killed 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and took about 250 others hostage. Many of the hostages remain in Gaza — it is not clear how many are still alive — and the attack deeply shook Israel’s sense of security.

Biden’s comments Wednesday are not the first time a U.S. president has threatened to condition aid to Israel. President Ronald Reagan halted a shipment of artillery shells and cluster bombs in 1982 during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon while the U.S. determined whether Israel’s use of American weapons violated arms exports laws. Reagan also paused the shipment of F-16s in 1983 until Israel withdrew from Lebanon.

About a decade later, President George H.W. Bush told Israel an aid package of $10 billion loan guarantees would only go through if Israel stopped using U.S. money to build settlements on land that belonged to the Palestinians.

Biden’s unwavering support of Israel during its military campaign has created political challenges for him months ahead of November’s presidential contest. Since the war began in October, Biden has faced protesters at nearly every public event and even at his personal home in Delaware. Students at college campuses across the country have set up encampments and barricades to pressure their universities to sever any ties to Israel.

Asked whether he was hearing the message of the protesters, Biden said on Wednesday: “Absolutely. I hear the message.” But he said he feared that many people have already forgotten the brutality of the Oct. 7 attack, comparing it to fading memories of the Holocaust.

Biden also said Israel needs to think about the landscape in the Palestinian territories, and the Middle East more broadly, after the war ends in Gaza — an issue that has long been a point of contention between Biden and Netanyahu. The president said he has been working with five Arab leaders, whom he declined to name, saying they are willing to help rebuild Gaza and smooth a transition to a two-state solution.

Netanyahu has emphasized that he will not allow the creation of a Palestinian state under his watch. U.S. officials have warned such a stance will make it nearly impossible to get the support of Arab countries in helping to rebuild Gaza or in winning broader Arab recognition of Israel.

University of Maryland, College Park

BS in microbiology

BA in journalism

Yasmeen Abutaleb is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2019 as a national health policy reporter. Yasmeen co-authored the New York Times No. 1 best seller, "Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration Response to the Pandemic that Changed History."

Yasmeen Abutaleb

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Biden says he will cut off offensive weapons if Israel invades Rafah

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