Israel to use 'imprecise missiles' in Gaza after US pause on arms transfer: Knesset member

A member of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) threatened, on Thursday, to use “imprecise missiles” in the war on the Gaza Strip in response to a US pause on arms transfer to Tel Aviv, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The US is not threatening to give us precise missiles. Oh yeah? Well, I got news for the US. We have imprecise missiles, and we have the right to defend ourselves,” Tally Gotlive, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, told Israeli Channel 7.

“So, maybe instead of using a precise missile and take down a specific room, or a specific building, I’ll use my imprecise missiles, and I’ll just destroy ten buildings. That’s what I’ll do.”

The far-right Knesset member claimed that Israel has the right to defend itself, and “will use what we possess”.

Biden said in an interview on CNN on Wednesday that he had paused arms transfer to Israel over its offensive on Rafah, where some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sheltered from Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

READ: Offensive in Rafah will not lead to release of hostages, warns ex-Israel PM

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

His decision has triggered a storm of anger inside Israel, with several government officials opening fire on the US President.

Biden acknowledged that US weapons have been used to kill civilians in Gaza.

The US President added that Israel’s actions in Rafah, so far, have yet to cross any “red lines” that would prompt him to overhaul his Gaza policy.

Israel has killed more than 34,900 people and injured 78,500 others in a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack that claimed nearly 1,200 people on 7 October, 2023.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

READ: Human Rights Watch says Israel is ‘unlawfully’ killing Palestinians in occupied West Bank