State Department tells Congress plans to send $8 billion worth of weapons to Israel

The U.S. State Department has informed Congress of its intention to approve Israel’s purchase of $8 billion in U.S.-made weapons, the State Department’s office responsible for arms transfers said on Friday.

It could be President Biden’s final arms transfer to Israel and marks the administration’s continued support for a long-time ally, even as Israel’s rising death toll in the Gaza war intensifies party opposition to further arms.

The weapons package includes artillery shells, small-diameter bombs, fighter and helicopter missiles and bomb GPS guidance systems, according to informal notifications provided to two congressional committees. Many weapons will not be available immediately but instead enter the manufacturing pipeline, where delivery can take years.

Israel will use funds provided by the United States to purchase weapons. Annual aid amounts to about $3 billion, but Biden increased the amount after Israel began a war in Gaza after a Hamas terrorist attack killed about 1,200 people on October 7, 2023.

During the informal notification period, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee are expected to review the proposed sale and raise questions to the State Department. If they have doubts, they can pause the transfer. Top Democrats on both committees were more skeptical of arms transfers to Israel, while top Republicans were quick to approve.

Once four senior members give the State Department the go-ahead, the agency will send a formal notification to Congress, essentially meaning the proposed sale will be approved. Congress would need a two-thirds vote in each chamber to pass a resolution blocking the sale.

Axios earlier reported the informal notification.

Arms transfers to Israel have been a contentious issue that has dogged Biden, a liberal. In the November presidential election, some progressive voters and some Muslim American voters said they could not support Biden because of his staunch support for Israel.

During the war, Israeli forces armed by the United States have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, including many civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Critics of Israel’s war have implored Biden to halt arms aid to Israel to force it to curb military operations that have devastated much of Gaza.

Biden and his top aides, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have tried to walk a delicate line, at times criticizing Israel’s behavior even as they said Israel had the right to defend itself. Biden once said that he had withheld a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in an attempt to prevent Israel from destroying the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but the Israeli military reduced much of Rafah to rubble anyway.

On another occasion, the Biden administration shelved an order for 24,000 assault rifles over concerns that settlers in the West Bank could use the rifles to commit violence against Palestinians.

President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has been a strong supporter of Israel during his first administration and has supported massive arms shipments to the Jewish state, has been urging Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire before he takes office this month.

U.S. officials under Biden are now trying to negotiate a ceasefire to release hostages kidnapped in the Oct. 7 attack.