President Joe Biden on Wednesday publicly warned Israel for the first time that the US would stop supplying it weapons if Israeli forces make a major invasion of Rafah, a refugee-packed city in southern Gaza.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah ... I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah,” Biden said in an interview with CNN.

The American leader's comments represent his strongest public language to date in his effort to deter an Israeli assault on Rafah while underscoring a growing rift between the US and Israel.

Biden acknowledged US weapons had been used by Israeli forces to kill civilians in Gaza, where the Jewish state has mounted a seven-month-old offensive aimed at destroying Hamas following its October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,000 people.

Israel's campaign has so far killed at least 30,000 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres," he said when asked about 2,000-pound bombs sent to Israel.

Israel's UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, earlier this week called Washington's decision to delay shipments "very disappointing" although he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel.

Israel this week attacked Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge, but Biden said he did not consider Israel’s strikes a full-scale invasion because they have not struck “population centres.” (Reuters)