President Joe Biden publicly warned Israel that the US would stop supplying it with weapons if the forces The Israelis carried out a full-scale invasion of Rafaha city full of refugees in southern Gaza.

“I made it clear that if they go to Rafah… I will not provide them with weapons that have historically been used to fight Rafah, to fight the cities that are dealing with this problem,” he said. Biden in an interview with CNN.

Comments Biden They represent the toughest speech yet in his efforts to contain the Israeli attack on Rafah and also expose a growing rift between the United States and its most important ally in the Middle East.

Biden admitted that Israel used American weapons to kill civilians in the Gaza Strip, where it launched a seven-month offensive aimed at destroying the Palestinian group Hamas. The Israeli campaign has so far killed 34,789 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

“Civilians have died in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other weapons targeting populated areas,” he said when asked about the nearly 1,000-kilogram bombs sent to Israel.

This week Israel attacked Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge, but Biden He said he did not consider the operations a large-scale invasion because they did not attack “populated areas.”

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had carefully reviewed arms shipments that could have been used in Rafah and, as a result, a delivery of 1,800 bombs was stopped. 907 kilograms and 1,700 bombs weighing almost 250 kilograms.

The interview was published hours after Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III publicly acknowledged that the decision Biden The delay in the delivery of thousands of heavy bombs last week was caused by concerns over Rafah, where Washington opposes a major Israeli invasion without guarantees for civilians.

Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip was sparked by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The attack killed about 1,200 people and abducted another 250, of whom, according to the Israeli version, 133 remain captive in the Gaza Strip.

Biden He said the United States would continue to supply Israel with defensive weapons, including the Iron Dome air defense system. (Reuters).