US withheld bomb shipment to Israel out of fears it could be used in Rafah

The Biden administration opted to pause a shipment of some 3,500 bombs to Israel last week because of concerns the weapons could be used in Rafah where more than one million civilians are sheltering "with nowhere else to go," a senior administration official told ABC News.

Other weapon transfers from the U.S. to Israel -- including the sale of Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM kits -- are being closely scrutinized as part of a larger review of U.S. military aid to Israel that began last April, the official said.

The decision to pause the shipment and consider slow-walking others is a major shift in policy for the Biden administration and the first known case of the U.S. denying its close ally military aid since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Asked about the reporting at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin publicly confirmed the U.S. has paused a munitions shipment and that a major Israeli operation in Rafah could change the U.S. calculus on security assistance to Israel.