The Biden administration has told Congress it plans to send $1 billion in military aid to Israel, according to media reports, despite U.S. opposition to a full-scale invasion of Rafah, in the southern Gaza, and its concerns about the increasing number of civilian deaths.
The US State Department submitted the file to the congressional review process on Tuesday, the Reuters news agency reported, citing two unnamed US officials.
The package, which has not yet been approved, includes about $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million for tactical vehicles and $60 million for mortar shells, congressional aides told the Associated Press news agency.
The request for approval for the transfer of deadly weapons comes a week after President Joe Biden suspended a single bomb shipment due to concerns over the Israeli offensive in Rafah, in the southern tip of Gaza, where the United Nations says nearly half a million people have been displaced. people fled.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Shihab Rattansi said from Washington DC that the new package “is being presented as America’s long-term commitment to supplying arms to Israel.”
“We’re told this is something that’s been under consideration since mid-spring. It could take several months, or even three years, to provide all these weapons to Israel,” he said.
“But again, it’s a long-term commitment. This is how it is presented. This is not necessarily linked to what is happening now (in Gaza). »
A recent State Department report found that Israeli forces likely used U.S.-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law. However, he did not identify violations that would end Washington’s current military aid.
From Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said on Wednesday that the Israeli army had intensified its ground and air attacks in Rafah and Jabalia in the north of the territory.
“Over the past few hours, we have recorded more casualties in the central areas of Gaza City. Ten Palestinians were killed in the Sabra neighborhood after a UN-run clinic was targeted by Israeli planes,” he said.
Nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since May 6, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a statement on Tuesday. Another 100,000 people were evacuated from the north in the face of further violent attacks.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 35,173 people have been killed and 79,061 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.
Invasion of Rafah
Biden said last week that he had delayed sending 2,000-pound (907 kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel, fearing they would be used in the Rafah invasion.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday that the United States will continue to provide military assistance as part of a $26 billion supplemental funding bill passed this month. last, but they suspended the bombs because “we don’t think they should be dropped in densely populated cities.” “.
Chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees review major foreign arms transactions.
Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to invade Rafah without guarantees for civilians, seven months after the start of a war that devastated Gaza.
His support for Israel in the war has emerged as a political liability for the president, particularly among younger Democrats, as he runs for office this year.
Gershon Baskin, director for the Middle East at the International Organization of Communities, said the US government’s apparent “about-face” was “probably explained by the fact that election time is speeding up for Biden.”
“He has been very heavily criticized by friends of Israel, both in fundamentalist Christian groups and in Israel support lobbies in Washington, and many of the criticisms from the Republican side have probably caused him to rethink his decision to suspend bomb deliveries to Israel. Israel,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
The Israeli army said in a statement on Tuesday that over the past day it had struck more than 100 targets in the Gaza Strip and continued to carry out military operations in the eastern part of the city of Rafah and in the area near the port of Rafah.