The United States government has delayed the sale of thousands of precision weapons to its ally Israel amid the war on Gaza, a report said, citing current and former US officials.
President Joe Biden’s administration has been criticized over its policy of arming Israel, which critics say violates U.S. laws that ban military aid and arms sales to countries involved in rights abuses. Seven months of Israeli bombing and siege of Gaza have killed nearly 35,000 people and injured nearly 80,000, and Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which it denies.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Monday that the proposed deal includes up to 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) – guidance kits that turn unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions.
Under U.S. law, important foreign military purchase agreements must be notified to Congress. The State Department typically provides information to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in advance of such potential sales, followed by formal notification to Congress.
Congress was first notified of the sale — estimated at $260 million — in January, but the Biden administration has yet to move forward, according to the WSJ. The administration’s lack of follow-up with an official notification of the sale resulted in an effective halt to the deal, the release said.
“This is unusual, especially for Israel, especially during a war,” a congressional official familiar with the arms sales process told the WSJ.
However, the official said they did not know the reason for the delay.
Seth Binder, an expert on U.S. arms sales at the Middle East Democracy Center, told the WSJ that if the delay was intentional, it would be “the first time since the beginning of this war that the administration has taken such an action on weapons as.” “We know.” used in Gaza.”
The reported delay in the JDAM deal comes as pro-Palestinian protests against the US government’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza, including arms sales, have become rampant on college campuses across the US.
It also comes a few months before the U.S. presidential election, which will pit Democrat Biden against former President Donald Trump, a Republican, in November.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in late February, 56 percent of respondents who self-identified as Democrats said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supports military aid to Israel, compared to 40 percent who said that this being the case would be more likely to support such a candidate.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined Monday to comment on whether arms sales to Israel had been put on hold.
“Our security commitments to Israel are ironclad,” he said during a briefing.
Kirby also told reporters that “nothing has changed” in the U.S. stance toward an Israeli attack on Rafah, a southern Gaza city where about 1.5 million Palestinians are seeking refuge amid relentless Israeli bombardment.
According to the White House, Biden had a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and emphasized U.S. opposition to a ground offensive in Rafah.
But in the early hours of Tuesday, just hours after Hamas, Gaza’s government, said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by international mediators, Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah crossing, cutting off a vital humanitarian route Help on the way to Gaza and a potential refuge for civilians from a construction offensive.
Palestinian rights advocates have argued that simple verbal criticism of Israeli policies by U.S. officials is not enough, but instead called on Biden to end military support for the U.S. ally.
“If a mass shooter walks into a school and you stand there and say, ‘Tell me when you need more guns and more ammunition,’ then you are guilty of that behavior,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American think tank Institute, said Al Jazeera.