The Biden administration informed Congress that it is promoting a new arms package to Israel worth $1 billion, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
The report comes about a week after Washington delayed a shipment of 3,500 heavy bombs and after U.S. President Joe Biden threatened to withhold bombs and mortar shell deliveries from Israel if it launched a large-scale operation in Rafah.
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US President Joe Biden concerned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not have a post-war plan
(Photos: Amir Cohen/Pool/Reuters, Morry Gash/AP Photo, AFP)
According to the report, the new arms package includes the potential transfer of tank ammunition worth $700 million, armored tactical vehicles worth $500 million and mortars worth $60 million. The administration began reviewing these deals in April and has now passed them on to Congress for review, at the end of which lawmakers will vote on whether to approve or block it.
"We are continuing to send military assistance,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Monday. “We have paused a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs because we don’t believe they should be dropped in densely populated cities. We are talking to the Israeli government about it."
The State Department is required to notify Congress of plans to sell weapons to other countries over a certain amount. The State Department usually provides information to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committees and the Senate, and then formally notifies Congress.
Last month, the Senate approved an aid package to Israel worth approximately $26 billion, which includes $5.2 billion for air defense, $1 billion for artillery production and billions of dollars for other U.S. weapons systems.
Meanwhile, the White House announced that Biden would veto a bill by House Republicans designed to obligate Washington to transfer military aid to Israel without delay.
The proposal is expected to pass in the Republican-controlled House but is unlikely to succeed in the Democrat-controlled Senate, despite support from several dozen Democratic lawmakers. In response, President Biden has announced he would veto the bill if it passes, indicating the White House's intention to use the delay in arms transfers as a means to influence Israeli government policy. The bill, set for a House vote on Thursday, would allow Congress to withhold funding for the Pentagon and the State Department if Biden fails to comply with the directive.
"The bill is a misguided reaction to a deliberate distortion of the Administration’s approach to Israel," the White House said. "The President has been clear: we will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself. Our commitment to Israel is ironclad.
"This bill could raise serious concerns about infringement on the President’s authorities under Article II of the Constitution, including his duties as Commander-in-Chief and Chief Executive and his power to conduct foreign relations."
Last week, Biden told CNN in an interview that heavy bombs had led to extensive civilian casualties in the Palestinian enclave. He further indicated that should Israel initiate a major operation in Rafah, he would be unwilling to supply such weaponry.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said, referring to 2,000-pound bombs that he paused shipments of last week.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem.”
“I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers," Biden added, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nickname.
Biden made the remarks after the IDF launched ground operations on the eastern outskirts of Rafah and seized control of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip which is located outside the city's built-up areas.
Since the president's statement, the IDF has pushed deeper into the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, and on Tuesday CNN reported that the U.S. administration estimates that Israel has amassed enough soldiers at the edge of the city to advance to a full-scale attack in the coming days. According to the report, senior U.S. officials are uncertain whether Israel has decided to launch such an attack, which would directly contradict Biden's stance.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported based on accounts from Rafah residents that Israeli tanks moved deeper into the eastern parts of the city on Tuesday morning, entering the neighborhoods of Al-Jneina, Al-Salam and Al-Brazil.
However, Israeli officials anticipate that Washington will eventually supply the munitions but will restrict their use in Rafah until the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip is completely evacuated.
Israeli sources, citing discussions with U.S. officials, told Ynet that Washington is seeking a resolution to the impasse over delayed weapon deliveries. The anticipated solution involves Israel receiving the munitions, with specific stipulations prohibiting their use until Rafah, Hamas' last stronghold in Gaza, is evacuated.
Officials indicate that although Washington is not opposed to military action in Rafah in and of itself, it expects an effective evacuation of the city’s residents. So far, 540,000 Gazans are believed to have fled the city since the commencement of IDF ground operations there, according to Israeli estimates.
In a CNN report on Tuesday, a Biden administration official discussed the potential for a large-scale attack in Rafah, noting that Israel has not made significant preparations for evacuating over a million Gazans sheltering from fighting there. The official also highlighted the lack of infrastructure for food, hygiene and shelter for civilians.
On Sunday, Blinken remarked that despite the IDF's operations in the eastern outskirts of Rafah, Washington has yet to see an Israeli plan to protect civilians. "We are interested in a plan to protect the civilians, which we have not seen yet, and also in a plan for what will happen in Gaza on the 'day after,'" he said, implicitly criticizing Netanyahu for his reluctance to discuss the matter in depth.