White House Approves Transfer To Israel Of More Bombs & Jets Worth Billions
The Biden White House has approved of sending billions of dollars worth of new military equipment and ammo to Israel, The Washington Post has revealed, even amid public criticism from US officials over Prime Minister Netanyahu's intent to soon send ground troops into Rafah, which is expected to result in humanitarian disaster in the refugee-packed southern city.
This package is to include 25 F-35 fighter jets, sources told the Post, and additionally the highly controversial 2,000-pound bombs which have been known to kill indiscriminately in Gaza when deployed by the Israeli air force.
"The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter," the report indicates.
"The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza," WaPo continues. "These officials, like some others, spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because recent authorizations have not been disclosed publicly."
The 2,000 pound bombs have been flagged by human rights monitors as behind much of the soaring Palestinian casualties, given they can demolish entire city blocks and produce craters over 40 feet wide.
The weaponry was approved as part of a prior authorization, but it highlights that for all the current US-Israel tensions due to the soaring civilian death toll in the Gaza campaign, Biden is certainly no closer to attaching 'conditions' on Israel when it comes to deployment of US-supplied weapons.
A State Department official has explained that "fulfilling an authorization from one notification to Congress can result in dozens of individual Foreign Military Sales cases across the decades-long life-cycle of the congressional notification."
"As a matter of practicality, major procurements, like Israel’s F-35 program for example, are often broken out into several cases over many years," the official added.
A New York Times investigation in December concluded that Israel has been using 2,000 pound bombs supplied by the US on Gaza neighborhoods on a routine basis. The Pentagon has said it almost never uses these types of weapons in densely populated urban areas anymore because of the likelihood of large-scale civilian casualties.
The Times report further said that 2,000 pound bombs had been dropped on Gaza and even inside declared 'safe zones' in the south, some hundreds of times.