President Joe Biden has warned Israel in his toughest public comments so far that the US would stop supplying it with some weapons if Israel invades the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

If Israeli forces launch an all-out assault on the city, the last major Hamas stronghold in the besieged enclave, the US president said “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used, that have been used”.

In an interview with CNN, Mr Biden acknowledged US weapons have been used by Israel which have killed civilians in Gaza during its seven-month offensive aimed at destroying Hamas.

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It comes after his decision last week to pause a shipment of heavy 2,000lb bombs to Israel over concerns about a looming attack on Rafah, following public and private warnings from his administration.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” Mr Biden told CNN.

“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.”

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the weapons delay earlier on Wednesday, saying the US paused “one shipment of high payload munitions”.

“We’re going to continue to do what’s necessary to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself,” Mr Austin said.

“But that said, we are currently reviewing some near-term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.”

Israel carried out military operations in Rafah earlier this week in what it described as “targeted strikes”.

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Mounting death toll

Nearly 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The war began when Hamas stormed into Israel on 7 October, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity, according to Israeli tallies.

US will still supply defensive systems

Mr Biden told CNN the US would continue to provide defensive systems to Israel, including for its Iron Dome defence system.

“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said.

“But it’s, it’s just wrong. We’re not going to – we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

It comes as Mr Biden’s administration is due to deliver a formal verdict this week, the first of its kind, on whether Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid have violated international and US laws.

A decision against Israel would heap further pressure on Mr Biden to limit the flow of weapons and money to Israel’s military.

Setting red lines is all very well, as long as you follow through when they are crossed. President Joe Biden knows that all too well.

But he also knows that if he follows through on this big new red line of withholding offensive weapons for Israel it could cost him dearly domestically.

The push-me-pull-you balance of geopolitics and domestic politics is intensely difficult right now for the American president.

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I’ll break this down into two parts. The politics in a moment. First the challenges of red lines.

Western leaders throw them down in interviews, like Mr Biden’s pronouncement on CNN last night, as unequivocal threats. “Cross the line, if you dare!” is the rhetoric.

But too often they turn out to be flawed tools of geo-political diplomacy.

Barack Obama set a chemical weapons red line with Syria’s Bashar al Assad in 2012. He walked right through it.

Vladimir Putin remembered that when he walked through a red line Mr Biden had set on Ukraine in 2021. Mr Putin invaded. The rest is history.

Every red line is distinct, of course, and they vary in terms of the gravity of the event they are seeking to prevent.

But the principle behind laying them is the same, as is the message set when they are crossed.

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Biden’s frustration with Netanyahu

Over the past six months, as Israel has sought to defeat Hamas in Gaza, President Biden didn’t think he’d need to lay out red lines. After all, Israel is one of America’s closest allies.

Instead, the Biden administration thought gentle diplomacy and frank back-channels with a “close friend of America” would do the trick.

But gradually, as Mr Biden and the Netanyahu government increasingly diverged on protecting civilians and a plan for “the day after” in Gaza, a red line began to appear – Rafah.

This has become Mr Biden’s red line for Israel.

The American president has repeatedly made clear his opposition to Mr Netanyahu’s insistence on a ground invasion of the southern Gazan city (Mr Netanyahu’s own red line) where about 1.4 million people are living, half of them under 18.

The Israeli military has not (yet) moved into Rafah city but is instead concentrating its operations to the east of the city and around the crossing to Egypt.

That fact has allowed the Biden administration to claim its red line hasn’t yet been crossed. “They didn’t describe it as a major ground operation,” spokesman John Kirby said this week.

Sometimes, red lines are smashed through. Sometimes, they are gradually chipped away at.

To counter the chipping Mr Netanyahu has been doing for weeks, Mr Biden hardened his red line.

“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,” he told CNN.

A significant admission

That he has personally admitted what was already a fact – that American weapons have killed thousands of civilians – is significant.

But there is important nuance in his red line.

He’s talking about stopping the delivery of offensive weapons for the type of operations that have flattened much of Gaza and could do the same to Rafah.

He is not threatening to cut Israel off from all US weapons, of course not.

Defensive weapons to counter Iranian proxy rockets will keep coming. As will long-range weapons and jets to counter Iran. None of that will stop being delivered.

Still, it’s a big shift for Biden. It’s not been done before and symbolically for Israel, in the middle of its longest and most critical war, it looks terrible.

The domestic political risks

And that brings us to the domestic politics of all this.

For every lever of influence Mr Biden pulls (and he’s seen they have their limited use) there is a domestic political calculus.

Pretty much all Republicans are against every lever; they want nothing less than unequivocal support for Israel.

More than that though – a significant number of his own Democrats will also be uneasy about America limiting weapons for Israel.

But critical voters in key states are very pro-Palestine. President Biden isn’t oblivious to their cry “Genocide Joe!”

It is a perilous political push-me-pull-you and the election is six months away.

Donald Trump’s lawyer has been told by a judge to stop the former president from “cursing audibly” and “shaking his head” during Stormy Daniels’ testimony at his hush money trial.

Judge Juan Merchan said the former president’s swearing had the “potential to intimidate” Ms Daniels – the porn star who was paid to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

The judge also told lawyer Todd Blanche that Trump had at one stage “uttered a vulgarity” during Ms Daniels’ testimony in New York on Tuesday.

The conversation took place during a sidebar at the trial – where a lawyer is called to speak to the judge about something so that the jury and the rest of the courtroom cannot hear.

Details of the exchange add to what would have already been remembered as a surreal day in court, as Ms Daniels described a sexual encounter she claims she had with Trump in Lake Tahoe.

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The official court transcript reveals that after Ms Daniels had given part of her testimony, the judge told Mr Blanche: “I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous.

“It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.”

Mr Blanche responded by saying he would talk to Trump, the transcript shows.

Mr Merchan also told Mr Blanche: “I am speaking to you here at the bench because I don’t want to embarrass him.”

The judge continued: “You need to speak to him. I won’t tolerate that.”

Mr Blanche again told Mr Merchan that he would talk to Trump before the judge spoke further about the former president’s behaviour in the courtroom.

The judge said: “One time I noticed when Ms Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine, and presumably smacking your client, and after that point he shook his head and he looked down. And later, I think he was looking at you, Mr. Blanche, later when were talking about The Apprentice, at that point he again uttered a vulgarity and looked at you this time. Please talk to him at the break, Mr Blanche.”

Mr Blanche responded by saying he would talk to his client.

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Following Ms Daniels’ testimony, the Trump team used its opportunity to question the adult film star to paint her as motivated by personal hatred of the former president and hoping to profit off her claims against him.

It comes after the judge found on Monday that Trump had again violated a gag order that bars him from disparaging witnesses or the jury.

Mr Merchan warned Trump he could face jail time “if necessary” for any further violations. Trump has already been fined $10,000 (£8,000) for breaches of the gag order.

What is the trial about?

Payments made to Ms Daniels by Trump’s then lawyer Michael Cohen near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign are at the heart of the hush money case.

Cohen paid Ms Daniels $130,000 (£104,000) in return for her keeping quiet about her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump.

Ms Daniels testified on Tuesday about the contact she said she had with Trump and the payment to buy her silence.

Trump, the Republican candidate for president again ahead of this year’s election, has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up the payment and denies having sex with Ms Daniels.