President Joe Biden’s decision to hold off supplying about 3,500 bombs to Israel was the culmination of months of rising frustration over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza — and his administration may not be done yet.

The U.S. acknowledged this week that it had halted the shipment, which including 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) explosives that could cause massive collateral damage in the densely packed southern Gaza city of Rafah, which Israel has said it’s determined to invade. It marked the Biden administration’s most serious signal of displeasure over the conduct of the ongoing war against Hamas.

On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the U.S. is reviewing “other potential weapon systems” if needed. A congressional aide and an administration official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said another pending arms sale has been under review for months — a potential $260 million sale between Boeing Co. and Israel for as many as 6,500 tail-kits to convert unguided bombs into GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions.

Yet even as tension mounts, Biden administration officials and former officials said the moves had a clearly defined goal: exert as much pressure as possible on Israel to scale back or abandon an invasion of Rafah while being careful not to make a total break with Netanyahu’s government.

The administration also wants to preserve space for negotiators who have convened in Cairo this week to keep striving for a cease-fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. Officials in those talks include Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, who is trying to bring home a deal whose prospects have whipsawed between hopeful and grim.

“The pause in arms shipments should not be read as a major break in the relationship,” said Mara Rudman, who held senior Middle East diplomatic roles in the Obama and Clinton administrations and is now a professor at the University of Virginia.

“Consider it as an element in the mix at a key inflection point — maximizing efforts to reach a cease-fire that brings out hostages, brings in humanitarian relief and starts to build a pathway to greater sanity all around.”

It all comes at a critical juncture in the seven-month old conflict. Biden is facing domestic pressure for a solution with U.S. elections just six months away. At the same time, Israel has begun strikes in Rafah that could either pressure Hamas leaders into signing a cease-fire deal or scuttle the negotiations entirely.

Biden’s decision on the arms supplies marks one of the most significant moments of discord between Israel and its most important ally since Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault, which started the war. Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., killed 1,200 people and abducted about 250 when its fighters stormed into southern Israel from Gaza.

The U.S. has stepped up its criticism of Israel in recent months, saying it’s not doing enough to protect civilians and allow aid into the besieged Palestinian territory, parts of which the United Nations says are on the verge of famine.

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