A new report says the administration of US President Joe Biden has authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel in recent days amid the regime’s genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Pentagon and State Department officials said the new arms packages include more than 1800 bombs, The Washington Post reported.
According to the report, these are 2000-pound devices that can demolish entire city blocks and are rarely used in populated areas. Israel, however, has used them extensively in Gaza.
Some Democrats, including allies of President Biden, say the US government has a responsibility to withhold weapons in the absence of an Israeli commitment to limit civilian casualties during a planned operation in Rafah, and ease restrictions on humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, which is on the brink of famine.
“The Biden administration needs to use their leverage effectively and, in my view, they should receive these basic commitments before greenlighting more bombs for Gaza,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in an interview. “We need to back up what we say with what we do.”
Last week, the State Department also authorized the transfer of 25 F-35 fighter jets and engines to Israel.
Earlier reports said the US had quietly made more than 100 weapons sales to Israel since the onslaught on Gaza began on October 7.
The arms supplies go against the US call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel began hostilities in Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The regime has also cut off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
Israel has killed more than 32,500 Palestinians and injured nearly 75,000 others in Gaza since the October day.
