Washington – The State Department has formally told the Congress that it is planning to sell Israel more than $ 7 billion in weapons, including thousands of bombs and missiles, President Donald Trump’s White House at the White House of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Two days after meeting with.
Large -scale arms sales come as a delicate ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, even Trump has shifted all the Palestinians from Gaza and to redevelop it as an international travel destination Widely criticized proposals have continued.
Sales is another step in Israeli’s attempt to increase Israel’s weapons shares. At the end of January, soon after assuming office, he caught Israel on sending a bomb of 2,000 pounds. The Biden administration had stopped a shipment of bombs on concerns about civil casualties, especially during the attack on the city of Rafa, the southern Gaza city.
Trump told reporters that he released him for Israel “because he bought him.”
According to the State Department, two separate sales were sent to the Congress on Friday. A monsoon, guidance kit and one array of other related equipment is for $ 6.75 billion. This includes 166 small-exercise bombs, 2,800 500-pound bombs, and thousands of guidance kits, fuses and other bomb components and support equipment. Those delivery will begin this year.
Other arms packages are for an estimated cost of $ 660 million for 3,000 Helphier missiles and related devices. The delivery of missiles is expected to begin in 2028 and their use will require additional training by the US Army.
Biden administration officials informed the Congress informally about the sale last month. Officials at that time said that some weapons in the package could be sent by current American shares, but it would take a year or several years to give most.
The top Democrat of the House Foreign Affairs Committee expressed concern about sales in January.
“We continue to connect with the administration on many questions and concerns,” a spokesman for rape told Associated Press earlier this week. It is not clear that if the Trump administration provided a formal notification on Friday, those issues were resolved.
The standard practice for the state department is to inform the top four MPs on foreign relations committees in the House and Senate if the price tag is more than a certain amount before providing a formal notice to the Congress. If the relevant committees objected to the sale of Meeks or three other MPs, the state department would return to a formal notice until the issues raised by the member were resolved.
The declaration comes at a particularly sensitive time, but outlines Trump’s hardcore support for Israel. He and Netanyahu spoke at the White House on Tuesday, where the two leaders discussed the delicate ceasefire and hostage deal in the Israeli-Hamas struggle and shared concerns about Iran.
The Allies have expressed opposition to Trump’s Gaza Rehabilitation Scheme and expressed concern that this ceasefire may endanger the deal.
But Trump stressed on Friday that it was a simple “real estate transaction”, and that America “is no crowd to do anything.” He has suggested that the rehabilitation of Gaza residents may be permanent – anything has been denied by top members of his own administration.
Hamas identified three more Israeli hostages, it is planning to free free as part of the ceasefire agreement, an indication this deal This deal is followed by the US and Israel’s calls to move the population of Gaza after the war. Was moving forward.
The three people occupied by Hamas during October 7, 2023, attacked Southern Israel, have been designed to be freed on Saturday, in the fifth exchange of Israeli hostages for the Palestinians jailed in Israel.
The Israeli forces, specified by the ceasefire agreement, have withdrawn from most of the Gaza, but remain in the border areas.