Munitions, Bombs – US to Send Israel $680 Million Worth of Weapons
The approval of the fresh shipment of the munitions came two days following a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Lebanon and Israel.
The United States government has provisionally ratified a $680 million weapons sale to Israel including precision munitions like JDAM kits and small-diameter bombs, the Financial Times reported.
The approval of the fresh shipment of the munitions came two days following a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Lebanon and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel’s need to replenish weapons stocks was one of the reasons for which he backed the ceasefire agreement.
“It is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries,” Netanyahu said, adding that these delays will be resolved soon to “keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission.”
Nonetheless, US officials who spoke to the Financial Times negated any links between the fresh arms deal with Israel and the delicate ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
According to the Financial Times, US officials informed Congress of the plan of arms sale to Israel, to which it can object.
However, such a step usually takes place before a public announcement is made about the deal, the paper said.
Killing Civilians
The United States government has received close to 500 reports over the past year stating that Israel used US-supplied weapons for attacks in the Gaza Strip that killed civilians, the Washington Post reported on October 30.
However, not a single case has reached the “action” stage of the investigation that should take place under the State Department’s Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance (CHIRG), according to the paper, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The cases came from “across the U.S. government, international aid organizations, nonprofits, media reports and other eyewitnesses,” the report said, and included photo evidence of “U.S.-made bomb fragments at sites where scores of children were killed.”
The Washington Post cited a recent study by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs which concluded that Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US military aid since World War II.
Israel has received at least $17.9 billion in US military assistance in the past year alone, according to the study.
Among the cases submitted to the State Department, according to the report, is the killing earlier this year of six-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in their car, “with pieces of a U.S.-made 120mm tank round purportedly found at the scene,” the report added.
Genocide Continues
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,282 Palestinians have been killed, and 104,880 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, Agencies)
