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Admin Plans to Send Bombs to Israel 09/16 06:43
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful
2,000-pound bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that
prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that
the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.
The $2.8 billion package includes 40,000 of the bombs, made up of 20,000
Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two U.S. officials and a person
familiar with the plan who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss
the package, which is not yet final.
Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of which
is to be paid for with foreign military financing -- in which U.S. taxpayer
dollars are given to Israel to turn around and buy the weapons from the United
States.
The proposed sale is just the latest in a series of Trump administration
steps to improve Israeli's military capacity. The conflict in Gaza has left
tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and has decimated the enclave. The U.S.
brokered a fragile ceasefire, but violence has continued.
The package, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, comes as
Israel has faced increasing international isolation over its war in Gaza in
response to the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas.
The sale signals that some strains in the relationship between President
Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since
the two countries launched the war against Iran in February, are not impeding
the closeness of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. Trump has had a hot-and-cold
history with Netanyahu over the years and expressed some frustration with
Netanyahu tied to the Iran conflict before their latest meeting in July at the
White House.
In 2024, the Biden administration held off on one shipment of the bombs, but
Trump lifted that hold when he took office again.
Last year, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review
process and approved a nearly $3 billion sale to Israel that included more than
35,500 of the bombs. The administration then approved a new series of arms
sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion in January.
The 2,000-pound bombs have multiple variants, with some designed to
penetrate deep, underground targets while others detonate above ground and
cause widespread damage.
Though the Israeli military has offered few details about what bombs and
artillery it has used in Gaza, experts analyzing strike footage and blast
fragments found on-site believe the U.S.-made bombs have been used there,
targeting a tunnel network used by Hamas but also killing of people in densely
populated areas.
While the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided since the fragile ceasefire
took hold in October, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in the
territory, including some overnight and into Tuesday that killed several
people. That is even after Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a key Mideast
negotiator, met with Netanyahu last month in an effort to push the ceasefire
deal forward and asked Israel to reduce its attacks.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on Israeli troops, and Israel
says its strikes are in response to those and other ceasefire violations.
The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023 killed around 1,200 people
and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel's offensive in Gaza to retaliate has killed
more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire,
Gaza's Health Ministry said.
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