Washington, DC – The Trump administration approved a large sale of weapons of nearly $ 3 billion in Israel, bypassing a normal Congress exam to provide the country more bombs of 2000 pounds which it used in his war against Hamas in Gaza.
In a series of notifications sent to the congress on Friday evening, the State Department said that it had signed the sale of more than 35,500 MK 84 and BLU-117 Bombs and 4,000 predator warheads worth 2.04 billion dollars.
The State Department approved The Israeli purchase of Bulldozers Caterpillar D9 and related equipment at an estimated cost of $ 295 million. Deliveries from the company based in Irving, Texas, should start in 2027.
Defense security cooperation published a declaration Confirming a sale of ammunition in Israel at an estimated cost of $ 675.7 million. Refkon USA, located in Tampa, Florida, and the Boeing Company, located in St. Charles, Missouri, will manufacture the equipment, which should be delivered to Israel from 2028.
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in a statement that he had “signed a statement to use the emergency authorities to accelerate the delivery of around $ 4 billion in military aid to Israel”.
Rubio noted that the Trump administration has so far approved nearly $ 12 billion in foreign military sales in Israel.
The last sale of weapons occurs as the First phase of the ceasefireWho took a break of 15 months of war, released from Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and has enabled more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, is expected to expire on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas seem willing to maintain their truce while negotiators of the United States, Egypt and Qatar for conferences aimed at reaching the next phase.
The games were supposed to have started to iron the details of the phase two weeks ago. But the talks were delayed because the first six weeks of the ceasefire were spoiled by disputes between Israel and Hamas for alleged violations of the agreement.
In the words of the truce which started on January 19, the second phase would force Hamas to release all the remaining living hostages from its terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023 which triggered the war, in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners in Israel, of a lasting cease-fire and a complete Israeli withdrawal of the Gaza Strip.
Over the past six weeks, Hamas has released 33 living and dead hostages in exchange for more than 1,700 Palestinian prisoners. The militant group still has 59 captives, 32 of which are considered dead.
Israel would seek an extension of the first phase to guarantee the freedom of more captives.
