Biden administration to allow paused shipment of 500-pound bombs to be sent to Israel
This picture taken from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip shows smoke plumes billowing during ongoing battles in the Sultan neighbourhood in the northwest of Rafah on June 18
By Kylie Atwood, Oren Liebermann and Jennifer Hansler, CNN
(CNN) — The Biden administration is allowing a shipment of 500-pound bombs to be sent to Israel, after it was paused more than two months ago, a US official said.
The initial decision to halt a shipment of both 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs was due to US concerns about Israel using the heavy munitions – specifically the larger 2,000-pound bombs – in their Rafah operation.
One shipment of the 2,000-pound bombs remains on hold.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the 500-pound bomb shipment being green-lighted.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” President Joe Biden said during a CNN interview, referring to the 2,000-pound bombs, days after the pause went into effect.
The US was not concerned about the use of the 500-pound bombs in the densely populated area, but shipments include multiple munitions and that was the case in this situation, which resulted in a hold on both types of bombs, the official said.
“Because of how these shipments are put together, other munitions may sometimes be co-mingled. That’s what happened here with the 500-pound bombs since our main concern had been – and remains – the potential use of 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza,” the official said.
“Because our concern was not about the 500-pound bombs, those are moving forward as part of the usual process,” the official added.
The-CNN-Wire
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