\n<\/p>\n
U.S. officials said on Tuesday that the Israeli strike that killed dozens of Palestinians in southern Gaza was a tragedy but that it did not violate President Biden\u2019s red line for withholding weapons shipments to Israel.<\/p>\n
The bloodshed came after Mr. Biden warned earlier this month<\/a> that the United States would block certain arms transfers if Israel targeted heavily populated areas in Rafah \u2014 a warning that has been tested regularly as the war has ground on.<\/p>\n John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, said the deaths were \u201cdevastating\u201d but that the scale of the attack was not enough to change U.S. policy. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to see a major ground operation,\u201d Mr. Kirby told reporters. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen that.\u201d<\/p>\n Israeli tanks were on the outskirts of the city \u201cto try to put pressure on Hamas,\u201d Mr. Kirby said. He also offered a measure of specificity about Mr. Biden\u2019s warning to Israel, which critics have said was too vague.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have not seen them go in with large units and large numbers of troops in columns and formations in some sort of coordinated maneuver against multiple targets on the ground,\u201d Mr. Kirby said. \u201cEverything that we can see tells us that they are not moving in in a major ground operation in population centers in the city of Rafah.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Biden has faced pressure from advocates and members of his own party to use his power to curtail arms to Israel as a way to influence its conduct in the war. The United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, which raises questions about American responsibility as the death toll mounts.<\/p>\n The strike in Rafah on Sunday ignited a deadly fire and killed at least 45 people, including children, and wounded 249, according to the Gazan health ministry. It has prompted international outrage, including from leaders in the European Union, the United Nations, Egypt and China.<\/p>\n Vice President Kamala Harris, asked about Rafah on Tuesday, said \u201cthe word tragic doesn\u2019t even begin to describe\u201d the deaths. She did not answer a follow-up question about whether the strike crossed a red line for Mr. Biden.<\/p>\n Still, the Israeli military\u2019s conduct was similar to what Mr. Biden said he would not tolerate when he warned, in an interview on CNN earlier this month, that the United States would not supply Israel with weapons to attack Rafah.<\/p>\n \u201cI have made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet they\u2019re not going to get our support if, in fact, they\u2019re going into these population centers,\u201d Mr. Biden said in the interview.<\/p>\n In that interview, Mr. Biden emphasized that the United States would still ensure Israel\u2019s security, citing the Iron Dome missile defense system and his support for Israel\u2019s \u201cability to respond to attacks.\u201d But he said he would block the delivery of weapons that could be fired into densely populated areas of Rafah.<\/p>\n The area that was hit on Sunday was not included in evacuation orders that Israel issued in early May, and some Palestinians sheltering in the camp said they had believed it was a safe zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Israeli military said that the target of Sunday\u2019s strike was a Hamas compound, and that \u201cprecise munitions\u201d had been used to target a commander and another senior official there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a \u201ctragic accident\u201d that civilians were killed.<\/p>\n