On Tuesday United States President Joe Biden’s administration informed Congress of a $1 billion weapons package for Israel, just a week after threatening to withhold some arms over concerns of a Rafah assault.
A US official said, ‘Informally the administration notified the weapons package to Congress, which will need to approve it’. A congressional aide who also requested anonymity said the weapons bought from US weapons makers amounted to around $1 billion.
The weapons will come out of a $95 billion package which was approved recently by Congress in defence support for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The Biden administration has repeatedly said it planned to go ahead and appropriate the funds through purchases from US manufacturers.
However, the deal comes a week after Biden warned he might withhold bombs and artillery shells to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went ahead in defiance of US warnings with an assault on Rafah, the southern Gaza city.
Last week the Biden administration also confirmed that for the first time, it had stopped a shipment including 2,000-pound bombs, in the fear that they would be used with devastating risks for civilians in Rafah.
Congress can still block the weapons sale to Israel, with left-leaning members of Biden’s Democratic Party outraged by the toll on civilians in the Gaza war. Despite opposition from the left, the overall package passed, with the rival Republican Party almost unanimously in support of arms for Israel.
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