The Biden administration notified Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale to Israel
The State Department has informally notified Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale to support Israel’s long-term security by restocking critical munitions and air defense capabilities, a US official familiar with the details confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.
President Biden has made it clear that Israel has the right to defend its citizens while America’s ally moves on war against Hamas in Gaza.
Some of the weapons in the package could be shipped through current U.S. stockpiles, but most will take more than a year to several years to ship, the U.S. official said.
OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images
The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles to help Israel defend against aerial threats, 155mm artillery shells for long-range targeting, Hellfire AGM-114 rockets, 500-pound bombs and more.
News of the arms sale was first reported by Axios.
The weapon pack would add a a record of at least $17.9 billion in military aid that the US has been providing to Israel since the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas triggered the war.
The Biden administration has faced criticism over the increasing number of Palestinian civilian deaths. There were demonstrations on university campuses and unsuccessful efforts in Congress Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and some Democrats to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel.
United States paused the delivery of the 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in May over concerns about civilian casualties if the bombs were used during an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Biden administration has demanded that Israel increase humanitarian aid to the enclave. But in November, citing some limited progress, she refused to restrict the arms trade as she had threatened if the situation did not improve.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AP
In the last days Israel is carrying out airstrikes in Gaza which have killed dozens of people, adding to the tens of thousands of deaths since the war began more than a year ago.
The Israeli military said on Friday that it had targeted dozens of Hamas gathering points and command centers across Gaza. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in densely populated areas.
The war caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times. Winter is here nowand hundreds of thousands took shelter in tents near the sea.
The informal notice to Congress is not the last notice before the sale. Now the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can review the package.
contributed to this report.
