More than two dozen House Democrats told national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday they're "deeply concerned" about President Joe Biden's threat to withhold military aid from Israel.
The 26 lawmakers, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, wrote a letter to Sullivan that asserted "withholding weapons shipments to Israel ... only emboldens our mutual enemies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian-backed proxies."
"Seven months after October 7, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust, Iranian-backed terrorist proxies continue to fire rockets and mortars into Israel and at Americans from all directions," they wrote. "At the same time, antisemitism is spreading globally like wildfire."
Biden on Wednesday said he wouldn't supply arms to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war effort if his military forces moved forward with an invasion of Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the paused shipment included 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs.
"He does not want certain categories of American weapons used in a particular type of operation in a particular place," she said. "We have to make sure that we protect those 1.5 million civilian lives [in Rafah].
"We are especially focused on the end use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza," she added. "We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment."
Netanyahu, in a video message that didn't mention Biden, said: "If we need to stand alone, we will stand alone."
The House Democrats said the president's decision "buttresses" the Iranian terror proxies' "agenda of chaos, brutality, and hate, and makes a hostage agreement even harder to achieve."
"Stalling these shipments will allow terror groups to continue stealing humanitarian aid, ultimately putting innocent Palestinians at even greater risk," they wrote. "As the President confirmed after October 7, Hamas must be 'eliminated entirely.'
"When we abandon these duties, we leave a vacuum of American leadership for our anti-democratic adversaries to fill," the members wrote.
Gottheimer and the other Democrats requested a classified briefing to discuss the matter.
On Friday, officials said shipments heading to Israel in recent days included offensive weaponry, small arms, and defensive weapons.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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