Washington lifts 'hold' on shipment of 500 Pound Bombs for Israel to Continue US Financed Murder, Genocide in Gaza

From [HERE] The US government has lifted a two-month hold on shipments of 500-pound bombs for Israel, according to US officials who spoke with Reuters on 10 July.

In early May, the White House announced a hold on a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel, citing “concerns” these would be used to flatten Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had taken refuge at the time.

Nevertheless, despite earlier warnings from US President Joe Biden and EU states that a full-scale military operation on Rafah would be considered a “red line,” the Israeli army has destroyed the city with impunity, killing scores of Palestinians along the way.

When pressed by reporters whether the devastation unleashed on the overcrowded city crossed Biden’s “red line,” White House officials claimed they “[had] not seen Israel smash into Rafah.”

“Everything that we can see tells us that they are not moving into a major ground operation in population centers in the center of Rafah,” US national security spokesman John Kirby said in late May. 

According to the Washington Post, Wednesday’s decision to lift the hold on the 500-pound bomb shipment followed a “pressure campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and pro-Israel lobbyists … including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), demanding the resumption of all weapons shipments regardless of their lethality.”

Officials who spoke with the US daily claim that the “500-pound bombs were never a serious concern for the Biden administration.” [MORE]