KEY POINTS
- Biden administration notifies Congress of an $8 billion arms package for Israel.
- Israel is facing a genocide case at ICJ over its military actions in Gaza.
- Israeli bombardment campaign in Gaza has killed over 45,717 Palestinians.
- ICC had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu for war crimes in Gaza.
WASHINGTON: The administration of US President Joe Biden has notified Congress of an $8 billion arms sale to Israel, a source familiar with the plan said on Saturday, despite Israel’s genocide campaign in Gaza since October 2023.
“The department has informally notified Congress of an $8 billion proposed sale of munitions to support Israel’s long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defence capabilities,” the official said as quoted by AFP.
The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza since a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its military actions in Gaza.
The US arms sales to Israel include munitions for fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery shells. The deal is one of the last significant arms sales to the country under Biden’s presidency.
The move comes just over a fortnight before President Joe Biden leaves office. A source familiar with the sale told the BBC: “The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law.”
In August, the US approved the sale of $20bn in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel.
The arms package, which needs approval from House and Senate committees, includes air-to-air missiles to be used against airborne threats, including drones and 155mm artillery shells, the official said.
Some of the arms in the package could be sent through current US stocks but the majority would take a year or several years to deliver, according to two US officials Saturday who spoke on condition of anonymity because the notification to Congress hasn’t been formally sent.
The weapons package would add to a record of at least $17.9 billion in military aid that the US has provided Israel since October, 2023, when Israeli launched the ongoing bombardment campaign in Gaza.
Since October 7, 2023, at least 45,717 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, the territory’s health ministry said on Saturday.
The Biden administration has faced criticism over mounting deaths of Palestinian civilians. There have been demonstrations on college campuses and unsuccessful efforts in Congress by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and some Democrats to block sales of offensive weapons to Israel.
The United States paused a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in May over concerns about civilian casualties if the bombs were to be used during an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The Biden administration has demanded that Israel increase humanitarian aid into the enclave. But in November, citing some limited progress, it declined to limit arms transfers as it threatened to do if the situation did not improve.
In recent days, Israel has been conducting airstrikes in Gaza that have killed dozens of people, adding to the tens of thousands of deaths since the war began more than a year ago.
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The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times. Winter has now arrived, and hundreds of thousands are sheltering in tents near the sea.
The informal notice to Congress isn’t the final notification before a sale. Now the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can review the package.
The arms sale comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters claiming that President Biden had imposed a “silent arms embargo” on Israel.
Biden has faced pressure from some Democrats to condition arms sales to Israel based on the handling of the war effort and humanitarian concerns in Gaza, but he has declined to do so.
Last May, the department expressed concerns that American weapons might have been used by Israel in Gaza in ways that violated international humanitarian law but did not formally accuse Israel of such violations.
