US President Joe Biden’s administration has for a second time in less than a month bypassed Congress in order to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel despite growing international outrage over Washington’s support for the Tel Aviv regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was cited by the State Department as saying in a statement on Friday that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale of arms to Israel amid Tel Aviv’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Blinken said Israel had requested that fuses, chargers and primers of 155mm high-explosive artillery munitions be added to previous purchases, increasing their estimated total cost from US$96.51 million to US$147.5 million and requiring a new notification.
The sale was approved under an emergency provision that waives the usual congressional review.
The same provision was used earlier in December to approve the sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of 120mm tank ammunition, which is worth more than $106m.
“Given the urgency of Israel’s … needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer,” the State Department said, stressing that, “The United States is committed to the security of Israel.”
Friday’s emergency determination comes as the United States and its Western allies are pressing ahead with their financial and logistical support to Israel in its brutal aggression against Gaza since early October.
The United States has since supplied the Tel Aviv regime with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment, and used its veto power against all United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The international rights advocacy groups as well as Palestinian resistance movements have described Washington as an accomplice in Israel’s genocidal war.
The Tel Aviv regime launched the devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has claimed the lives of more than 21,000 people, most of them children and women.
Over 55,000 individuals have also been wounded, with thousands more believed lost and buried under the rubble.
The United Nations has described the situation in Gaza as “beyond catastrophic”, with residents struggling to find food, water and fuel, while living in crowded shelters or tents.
