The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing current and former U.S. officials, that the Biden administration is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel to bolster its military arsenal, despite the United States’ efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The newspaper stated that the proposed weapons shipment includes MK-82 bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) kits KMU-572, which add precision guidance to bombs and FMU-139 bomb fuses, noting that the shipment’s value is estimated to be in the “tens of millions of dollars.”
The report, quoting a U.S. official, mentioned that the administration is still reviewing the proposed shipment, and the official stated that the details of the proposal might change before the administration informs Congressional leaders, who must approve the shipment.
The U.S. Departments of Defense and State, the Israeli Defense Ministry, and the Israeli military did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comments on the report.
Since December 2023, the Biden administration has twice avoided Congressional review of arms sales to Israel.
The administration faced criticism for continuing to supply weapons to Israel amid escalating allegations that U.S.-made weapons were used in strikes that killed or injured civilians.
The war in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip began following the movement’s attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the death of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and the taking of 253 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.
The massive Israeli aerial and ground attack on the densely populated Gaza Strip resulted in the death of 28,775 Palestinians, most of them also civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and forced nearly all of the Strip’s residents, numbering more than two million, to flee their homes.
