Recent media reports stated that there are discussions within the administration of US President Joe Biden to impose conditions on military aid to Israel if it invades Rafah as a means of reducing civilian casualties. The assumption was that the United States could threaten to cut off or reduce arms supplies to Israel, but according to a report by ABC News, the United States might do the opposite.

The report quoted American officials who said that the United States had not made a decision about benefiting from military aid, and that “it is possible to provide additional aid - not less - as an incentive” to reduce civilian casualties.

American officials made these statements in response to a complaint from a senior Israeli official that American arms shipments were not arriving quickly enough. The official said that in the wake of October 7, US weapons were “coming very quickly,” but “we now find that they are very slow.”

US officials denied any intentional slowdown in arms shipments to Israel. When asked about the Israeli claim, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said (on ABC News) that the United States continues to supply weapons to Israel.

“I'm not going to talk about the timeline for each individual system that's provided,” Kirby said. “We continue to support Israel in its self-defense needs. That's not going to change, and we've been very vocal about that.”

The United States provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military aid, and the Biden administration has approved more than 100 arms deals since October 7 to support the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. The United States is looking to give Israel another $14 billion as part of a $95 billion foreign military aid bill that has passed through the Senate but has yet to be voted on in the House.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Sunday that the death toll in Gaza since Israel launched its attack reached 31,645 Palestinians. About 70% of the victims are women and children. The Ministry of Health's figures are considered low estimates because they do not take into account the thousands of missing people who are presumed to have died under the rubble.