The Biden administration has released approximately half of the shipment of heavy bombs that had been withheld from Israel since May, according to a US official speaking to The Times of Israel. The decision to withhold the bombs was initially made due to concerns that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would use them in densely populated areas of Gaza, potentially causing mass-civilian casualties. In May, the White House announced it would withhold a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs. President Joe Biden warned that additional offensive weaponry would be frozen if Israel launched a major military offensive in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, where over one million Palestinians were sheltering at the time.

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