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U.S. President Joe Biden has tentatively approved a $680 million arms sale to Israel, a precision that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited as one of the reasons for supporting a ceasefire with Hezbollah. This is a new type of transportation of weapons.
U.S. officials recently briefed Congress on plans to provide Israel with thousands of additional Joint Direct Attack Munitions kits (known as Jadams) and hundreds of small-caliber bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. Publication of such plans for arms sales, which can be objected to by Congress, usually precedes the publication of the agreement.
The planned sale, which had not been previously reported, comes as Israel and Hezbollah begin implementing a fragile US-brokered ceasefire to end more than a year of fighting on the Israeli-Lebanese border. .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Tuesday that replenishing arms supplies was one of the three main reasons for the ceasefire, saying a cessation of fighting would “give our forces some breathing space and replenish our stockpiles.”
“It is no secret that there are long delays in the delivery of arms and ammunition,” the Israeli leader said. “These delays will soon be resolved. We will receive advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more offensive power to accomplish our mission.”
But U.S. officials denied there was any clear link between the cease-fire agreement and the latest weapons delivery approvals. The cease-fire agreement includes a so-called side letter from the U.S. to Israel, expressing Washington’s support for Israel’s freedom of action, but the agreement also includes provisions for arms sales, according to people familiar with the document. There was no warranty included.
U.S. officials also denied that there were any deliberate delays in arms shipments beyond the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, which Biden halted earlier this year over concerns about their use in the densely populated Gaza Strip. are.
Biden administration officials are pushing ahead with arms sales to Israel even as concerns grow over humanitarian casualties in the Gaza Strip.
The $680 million for Jadam and small-caliber bombs is on top of a roughly $20 billion arms sale that Senate Democrats, led by Bernie Sanders, unsuccessfully tried to block last week over concerns about rising civilian deaths in Gaza. It will be done.
Congress passed $26 billion in additional wartime aid to Israel in April, increasing the $3.8 billion in annual security assistance the United States provides to Israel.
In October, the Biden administration threatened to withhold military aid to Israel unless steps were taken to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and set a 30-day deadline for the situation to improve.
But even after aid supplies to Gaza fell to record lows, the US State Department retracted the threat, saying it was satisfied that Israel had taken steps to improve the humanitarian situation.
The reversal sparked a huge outcry from rights groups, who accused Israel of failing to meet any specific standards set by the United States and of “starving” Palestinians in the shattered enclave.
President-elect Donald Trump is not expected to do much to curb Israel’s military efforts in the Gaza Strip, but he has also said he wants Israel to end its war with Hamas.
