Middle East conflict live updates: Biden warns U.S. will cut off offensive weapons if Israel invades Rafah

President Biden said he would halt the shipment of U.S. offensive weapons to Israel if the country moves ahead with its long-planned ground invasion of Rafah. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs,” Biden said in an interview with CNN, referring to 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States.

Here’s what to know:

• The World Health Organization said that Israel’s closure of the Rafah border crossing would cause health services in southern Gaza to run out of fuel in three days. The Biden administration and aid groups warned it was critical to keep the crossing open for humanitarian supplies.
• Israel said that it reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing that was closed over the weekend after a deadly Hamas rocket attack. However, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said that neither fuel nor aid had entered through the crossing.
• CIA Director William J. Burns was in Israel on Wednesday and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to government policy.
• At least 34,844 people have been killed and 78,404 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.
• Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 267 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.

2:09 AM: Aid being loaded in Cyprus for delivery to completed Gaza pier

Middle East conflict live updates: Biden warns U.S. will cut off offensive weapons if Israel invades Rafah

Aid is being loaded onto a ship in Cyprus and is set to be the first shipment to Gaza using a U.S.-built temporary pier to facilitate delivery, Cyprus and U.S. officials said. The United States confirmed Tuesday that the floating pier was ready and “awaiting final movement offshore.”

As of Tuesday, construction of the temporary pier was complete, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said. But Centcom temporarily paused moving the floating pier toward Gaza due to unsafe weather, Singh said, citing high winds and swells. The components are positioned at the Israeli Port of Ashdod, several miles north of the Gaza border, she said Tuesday.

Singh added that humanitarian aid was being loaded onto the cargo vessel MV Sagamore, which is in Cyprus.

The United States announced the pier in early March, and said it would take as long as 60 days and require about 1,000 U.S. troops to build. Initially, the pier is expected to facilitate the delivery of about 90 truckloads of aid into Gaza daily, according to the Department of Defense. Once fully operational, it will scale up to 150 truckloads daily.

By: Sammy Westfall

2:08 AM: Biden says he will cut off offensive weapons if Israel invades Rafah

President Biden 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 the one launched by Iran last month. 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.

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By: Yasmeen Abutaleb