US plans $8b sale of arms, including bombs, to Israel
The package includes thousands of bombs, missiles, and artillery shells and is one of the largest new arms sales since the war in Gaza began in 2023.
The Biden administration notified Congress of an $US8 billion weapons package for Israel, including thousands of bombs, missiles, and artillery shells, in one of the largest new arms sales since the war in Gaza began in 2023.
The weapons package, which congressional officials received notification of late on Friday afternoon, also includes the planned sale of thousands of bombs, air-to-air missiles, and precision munitions, according to US officials familiar with the sale.
The new weapons package includes some items that could draw objections from Democrats who have opposed the transfer of large bombs to Israel, in order to reduce the civilian toll of the war in Gaza. The proposed sale includes a set of guidance kits designed to be fitted to large MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, as well as BLU-109 bunker buster bombs, one of the officials said. Also included are AMRAAM and Hellfire missiles and 155mm artillery rounds.
The planned weapons sale, which comes just weeks before President Biden hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, is the largest the US government has authorised for Israel since the massive $US20 billion weapons package the administration approved in August. Israel was also informed of the move, said an Israeli official, who said that the country expected the weapons to begin arriving in 2025.
“We will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel’s defence,” said an administration official familiar with the deal, which still requires congressional approval in order to move forward. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment. The new weapons package was reported earlier by Axios.
Arms sales to Israel have been a troublesome issue for the Biden administration, which organised an airlift of bombs and other munitions to Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and militants seized some 250 hostages.
The resulting Israeli military offensive against Hamas has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities, whose figures don’t say how many were combatants. The war, which has largely been carried out with U.S.-made weapons, has reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins while thousands of people have also struggled with famine-like conditions in the territory, according to Palestinian health officials and a United Nations-backed hunger-monitoring mechanism.
Some leading Democrats and others in Congress have urged Biden to curb weapons sales to Israel to reduce civilian deaths in Gaza and pressure Netanyahu into accepting a ceasefire that would halt the war and free remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The Biden administration invested substantial amounts of time and political capital pushing fruitlessly for a ceasefire agreement. Israeli officials met with mediators in Doha Friday to continue discussions on a possible deal, but gaps remain between the sides, according to Arab officials familiar with the talks. Hamas said Friday that the current negotiations were serious and that the group was seeking a deal at the earliest possible time.
Biden had decided in May to pause delivery of one set of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs to Israel, amid fears that an Israeli offensive on the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah could cause further harm to civilians. The administration later lifted its hold on the delivery of the 500-pound bombs but continues to withhold the 2,000-pound munitions.
“The Biden administration has been walking the fine line, sometimes using ammunition supplies, especially 2,000-pound bombs, as a warning sign to Israel,” said Ofer Shelah, a former head of Israel’s parliamentary subcommittee on military force build-up and now a defence expert at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies.
“Everybody’s waiting for Trump” to understand how policy will change, he said. Israel’s defence ministry in December thanked the White House for supporting Israel with weapons and ammunition throughout the war. Netanyahu in June had angered the White House when he publicly critiqued the U.S.for withholding munitions to Israel, coinciding with policy disagreements over the military operation in Rafah.
The $US8 billion package sent to Congress on Friday comes in addition to a separate $680 million sale of JDAM kits and small-diameter bombs, which the administration sent to Congress in November.
“These are arms shipments that he already committed to transfer to Israel months ago. However, the urgency with which he’s doing it does indicate that he wanted some symbolic value to it” in terms of the strength of the bilateral relationship, said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York.
– Summer Said contributed to this article.
The Wall Street Journal
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