The Trump administration has given the go-ahead for a nearly $3 billion arms sale to Israel, sidestepping the standard congressional review process to expedite the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs widely used by the Israeli military in its ongoing onslaught in the Gaza Strip.
In a series of notifications sent to Congress on Friday, the State Department has reported it has approved the sale of more than 35,500 MK 84 and BLU-117 bombs and 4,000 Predator warheads worth $2.04 billion to Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio “has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to the Government of Israel of the above defense articles and defense services in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements,” the department said.
Deliveries are set to begin next year, it said.
According to the same statement, Rubio has also approved another munitions sale to Israel worth $675.7 million to be delivered starting in 2028.
The Israeli regime has extensively used the MK 84, also known as the 2,000-pound bomb, in its genocidal wars against the people of Lebanon and Palestine, including the assassination of top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
Last May, the previous US administration attempted to curb Israel’s military aggression in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, by imposing a temporary ban on the sale of 2,000-pound bombs.
This effort, however, proved futile in halting the invasion, as the US continued to supply other weapons to the Israeli regime.
On February 25, Trump’s National Security Adviser, Michael Waltz, rescinded the ban to allow the State Department to resume the sale of the bombs to the regime.
The State Department has also approved the sale of Caterpillar D9 Bulldozers and related equipment for an estimated cost of $295 million to Israel.
The Israeli regime has used D9 bulldozers to demolish thousands of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has advised Caterpillar Inc. that by supplying the bulldozers to the regime, it is complicit in human rights violations.
D9 has been involved in several incidents of civilian deaths, including in 2023 when it was used against the refugees sheltering outside the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
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