WASHINGTON: The Republican-led US House of Representatives voted Thursday to force President Joe Biden to end his hold on high-payload bombs approved for Israel but blocked over concerns about their use in Gaza.
The largely symbolic move — it has no chance of becoming law — is a response to Biden suspending the shipments over fears of mass Palestinian casualties as Israeli forces press their assault on the densely populated city of Rafah.
The Israel Security Assistance Support Act would prevent Biden from freezing any congressionally approved military aid to Israel, including 3,500 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs that he has put on hold.
Republicans say Biden has no right to interfere with Israel’s military campaign, but House Democratic leadership described the bill as “another partisan stunt” infringing on the president’s ability to conduct foreign policy.
Nevertheless, 16 Democrats crossed the aisle to join Republicans in passing the bill by 224 votes to 187, while a further 13 did not vote, in a rare rebuke of Biden from a small but significant section of his own side.
The legislation will be dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate and Biden has pledged to veto it in any case.
The war in Gaza broke out after the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,233 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The White House has voiced frustration with Israel over the rising civilian death toll and particularly in its ground assault on Rafah, where more than one million people are sheltering.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC on Sunday that Israel “is on the trajectory potentially to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left, or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy, and probably refilled by Hamas again.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Biden of “carrying water” for Hamas at the same time as doing nothing to stop the “dangerous nuclear buildup” in Iran, which attacked Israel last month.
“The president took no decisive action when Iran was planning to attack Israel, and now that Israel is fighting for its very survival, he is withholding weapons and threatening to veto legislation that would give the Israelis what they need to adequately defend themselves,” he said in a statement.
“The president and his administration need to reverse course immediately to stand with Israel and against the terrorism and atrocities of Iran and its proxies.”
The White House announced a $1 billion-plus package of arms for Israel this week that includes tank and mortar ammunition, offering cover for pro-Israel Democrats to reject the bill.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden is trying to shore up his support among vital Black voters with a days-long series of events starting Thursday, including a visit to the former university of civil rights icon Martin Luther King.
Democrat Biden relied on African-American voters to help him beat Donald Trump in 2020, but some polls show they are increasingly deserting him ahead of November’s rematch with the Republican.
On Thursday Biden, 81, marked the 70th anniversary of a famous US Supreme Court ruling that overturned racial segregation in schools by meeting with key figures in the case in the Oval Office.
They included Adrienne Jennings Bennett, one of the plaintiffs in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case that proved a milestone for the US civil rights movement, and Cheryl Brown Henderson, a daughter of plaintiff Oliver Brown.
Biden “recognized that back in the 40s and 50s ... the folks that you see here were taking a risk when they signed up to be part of this case,” Henderson said after the meeting.
On Friday Biden visits the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington to give remarks to celebrate the anniversary of the Brown decision.
Later on Friday Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — the first Black, South Asian and female “veep” in US history — will meet leaders from nine historically Black sororities and fraternities.
Biden is honoring “the legacy of those who paved the way for progress and hard-fought rights for Black Americans,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“He will also highlight his vision for how we must continue to build on these freedoms,” added Jean-Pierre, who is the first Black person to serve in the role.
Then on Sunday Biden will address students at the historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, whose most famous former student is civil rights leader King.
Biden has a bust of King in the Oval Office in a sign of his support for racial equality, which he frequently contrasts with what he says is racially insensitive and anti-immigrant language by his rival Trump.
His visit to Morehouse is politically sensitive, however, as US campuses and graduation ceremonies have recently been disrupted by widespread protests against Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
A senior White House official recently met students and faculty members at Morehouse to discuss objections to Biden delivering the commencement address, NBC News reported.
Biden’s outreach to Black voters comes days after a New York Times/Siena poll showed that in addition to trailing Trump in several key battleground states, he is also losing ground with African Americans.
Trump is winning more than 20 percent of Black voters in the poll — which would be the highest level of Black support for a Republican presidential candidate since the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964, The New York Times said.
Several other polls have also shown Biden’s support lagging among Black voters.
But a participant in Thursday’s White House gathering, Derrick Johnson, president of the country’s major civil rights organization NAACP, disputed the narrative that there has been “an erosion” of support among Black voters, and said polls have been wrong in several recent elections.
“I hope that the American public recognizes in order for us to remain a leading democracy we must participate at the highest level,” he said.
In 2020, Black voters were overwhelmingly loyal to the Democratic Party, with 92 percent voting for Biden and only eight percent for Trump, according to the Pew Research Center.