Rights groups demand Biden halt Israel arms transfers after ICJ ruling
Al Jazeera
Court order for immediate halt to Israel’s Rafah offensive is latest opportunity for Biden to take stand, observers say.
Rights groups have renewed calls for US President Joe Biden to halt weapons transfers to Israel, after the United Nations’ top court ordered the Israeli government to immediately halt its ground offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and allow aid into the area.
The United States has faced months of pressure to suspend military assistance to Israel as the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip rose steadily and a humanitarian crisis deepened across the besieged enclave.
Biden himself has publicly opposed Israel’s offensive in Rafah – where the majority of Gaza’s displaced residents had gathered – and his administration suspended one shipment of weapons to Israel over its concerns.
Yet despite saying in early May that he would withhold more weapons if the country went ahead with a large-scale operation in Rafah, Biden has largely backed away from using such leverage as Israeli leaders rejected Washington’s warnings.
On Friday, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said the International Court of Justice’s order “leaves no ambiguity about what should follow: an arms embargo on Israel”.
