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The Biden administration has informed Congress that it intends to move forward with plans to sell more than $1 billion in new U.S. weapons to Israel, according to three congressional aides familiar with the deal.
Notification of the sale, which includes new tactical vehicles and ammunition, comes as President Joe Biden has seized a shipment of bombs to Israel, hoping to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a potential invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Biden said last week he would prevent the launch of weapons such as bombs and missiles into densely populated areas where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge.
The potential arms transfers suggest the Biden administration is walking a narrow path with Israel, trying to prevent an attack on Rafah and limit civilian casualties in Gaza but continuing to provide aid to a longtime ally the president says has the right to defend itself. A congressional aide said Congress had known about the arms deal for months and suggested the administration was simply waiting for passage of a foreign aid package to provide more aid to Israel before moving forward with the required congressional notification process.
Asked about the plan, which the Wall Street Journal reported earlier, the State Department pointed to recent comments by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan that the United States would continue to be committed to providing military assistance to Israel to defend against Israeli threats. .
“The president has made it clear that he would not provide certain assault weapons if such an action occurred,” Mr. Sullivan said. “This has not happened yet. We are still working with Israel to find better ways to ensure the defeat of Hamas across Gaza, including Rafah.
The government has been pushing for a ceasefire agreement under which Hamas would release at least some of the hostages it took in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. But Qatar’s Prime Minister, a key figure in the negotiations, said on Tuesday that the talks were “almost at an impasse”.
Biden initially embraced Israel after an Oct. 7 attack killed about 1,200 people, but he found himself increasingly opposed to Israel’s conduct of the war, which has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza health authorities.
Still, while he threatened last week to withhold more weapons, he made clear that the U.S. would provide weapons to keep its allies safe, including the Iron Dome missile defense system and its “ability to respond to an attack” such as the one Iran made in April The one that launched.
The State Department’s informal notification of the arms transfer to the required congressional committees kicks off a multi-step process in which senior foreign affairs lawmakers informally consider the terms of the arms transfer and negotiate privately with the State Department. Congress as a whole will then consider the package.
Edward Wong Contributed reporting.
