US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday, 8 May, that he would suspend certain deliveries of American weapons to Israel if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides on an invasion of Rafah, admitting that these arms have been employed in Gaza, resulting in civilian casualties. “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. The Biden administration has faced remarkable pressure, even from within the ranks of the Democratic Party, to restrict arms shipments due to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. Until now, the president had resisted such demands and strongly backed Israel’s actions against Hamas. However, the prospect of a significant invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza housing over a million Palestinian civilians, seems to have influenced the president’s decision-making. For months, rights groups and humanitarian organizations have been compiling evidence of purported breaches of international law by the Israeli military in Gaza. Many of these incidents, suspected to involve weapons made in the U.S., include assaults on civilian areas, healthcare facilities, journalists, and humanitarian workers. Israel’s military operations displayed…
