WASHINGTON — The State Department has informed Congress of a planned $8-billion weapons sale to Israel, U.S. officials say, as the American ally presses forward with its war against the Hamas militant group in Gaza.
Some of the arms in the package could be sent through current U.S. stocks but the majority would take a year or several years to deliver, according to two U.S. officials Saturday who spoke on condition of anonymity because the notification to Congress hasn’t been formally sent.
The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles to help Israel defend against airborne threats, 155 mm projectile artillery shells for long-range targeting, Hellfire AGM-114 missiles, 500-pound bombs and more.
The weapons package would add to a record of at least $17.9 billion in military aid that the U.S. has provided Israel since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, launched the war.
The Biden administration has faced criticism over mounting deaths of Palestinian civilians.
In recent days, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed scores of people, adding to the tens of thousands of deaths since the war began.
Israel’s air and ground attacks have killed at least 45,717 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally but says women and children make up more than half the dead. The ministry says more bodies remain beneath rubble or in areas where emergency responders cannot reach.
Israel’s military says it targets only militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
There have been demonstrations on college campuses and unsuccessful efforts in Congress by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and some Democrats to block sales of offensive weapons to Israel.
The United States paused a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in May over concerns about civilian casualties if the bombs were to be used during an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Biden administration has demanded that Israel increase humanitarian aid into the enclave. But in November, citing some limited progress, it declined to limit arms transfers as it threatened to do if the situation did not improve.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times. Winter has now arrived, and hundreds of thousands are sheltering in tents near the sea.
The informal notice to Congress isn’t the final notification before a sale. Now the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can review the package.
News of the weapons sale was first reported by Axios.
Lee writes for the Associated Press.
