United States authorises fresh arms transfers to Israel despite concerns
The United States is reported to have sanctioned fresh arms transfers to Israel worth several billions of dollars.
The transfer of weapons is coming amid a week of tensions with Israel over its conduct in the Gaza War
The BBC quoted the Washington Post and Reuters news agency have saying that weapons include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000lb (900kg) bombs and 500 MK82 500lb bombs, as well as 25 F35A fighter jets.
The larger bombs have previously been linked to air strikes in Gaza causing mass casualties.
Washington gives $3.8bn (£3bn) in annual military assistance to Israel.
But the latest package comes as the Biden administration has been raising concerns about rising civilian deaths in Gaza and humanitarian access to the territory, which the UN says is on the verge of famine.
The administration has also said it “cannot support” an anticipated large-scale Israeli ground offensive in Rafah on the Egypt border, where there are more than a million displaced people.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ramallah criticised the US for inconsistencies in its positions.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, it said: “demanding [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to stop killing civilians and supplying him with weapons is an unprecedented principled and moral contradiction”.
News of the arms transfers emerged on the same day that President Joe Biden spoke of “the path being felt by so many in the Arab-American community with the war in Gaza”.
The arms transfers have also been strongly criticised by some senior members of the president’s Democratic party who have been calling for US military aid to be limited or conditional on changes in how Israel conducts military operations.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed nearly 1,200 people and resulted in about 250 more being taken back to the coastal enclave as hostages.
Nearly 32,500 Palestinians have since been killed and 74,900 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza on Thursday. It warned that “Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine … but that famine is setting in.”
BBC/Anadolu
