A new US arms package for Israel worth billions of dollars in fighter jets and bombs is facing major criticism from some politicians.
The Biden Administration has authorized the transfer of more than 1,800 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders labeled the move “obscene” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing: “The US cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000 lb. bombs that can level entire city blocks.”
“This is obscene. We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel,” he added.
Hamas’ October 7 attacks killed around 1,200 people and saw around 240 others were kidnaped and taken hostage in Gaza.
Israel responded to the attacks with relentless airstrikes and a ground invasion of the territory. More than 32,000 Palestinians have so far been killed, Al Jazeera reported.
Oregon senator Jeff Merkley also weighed in on the news in a post on X, saying the move was “wrong on every level.”
“The Biden administration can’t credibly push to increase humanitarian access to Gaza while simultaneously sending the same weapons that the Netanyahu government is using to indiscriminately kill innocent Palestinians,” he wrote.
In a statement to The Post, a White House official said they had “continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself and that “conditioning aid has not been our policy.”
President Joe Biden on Friday noted “the pain being felt” by Arab Americans over the conflict, saying he was “devastated” by the suffering, per Reuters.
Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
Some Republicans and Democrats are nevertheless staunchly against implementing any conditions on US military support for Israel.
In a column for the Washington Examiner, Reps. August Pfluger and Don Davis, along with President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America Michael Makovsky, wrote that “America must stand beside its partners when they face barbaric attacks.”
“Doing so is also morally right and in the U.S. interest,” they added.
The new package includes more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, per The Post.
The website Collective Awareness to UXO (CAT-UXO), which collects information about explosive devices, says the MK84 bomb “can penetrate up to 15in (381mm) of metal or 11ft (3.4m) of concrete.”
Such bombs have the potential to devastate huge areas and obliterate buildings, putting civilians in the densely packed Gaza Strip at serious risk of harm.
An analysis by The New York Times found that Israel frequently used the bombs to strike targets in designated safe zones in Gaza in the first six weeks of the conflict.
The other bomb in the package, the MK82, is a “free fall, general purpose bomb,” per the US Air Force website.
It is one of the world’s most common air-dropped bombs, CAT-UXO says.
