US To Resume Shipments of 500-Pound Bombs To Israel

The Biden administration is releasing the bomb shipment as Israel continues to slaughter civilians

The Biden administration is sending a shipment of 500-pound bombs to Israel that it initially delayed as a public relations stunt to make it appear that the US was doing something to rein in Israel’s killing of civilians.

The US is still withholding a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, but it has sent 14,000 of them to Israel since October 7, giving the Israeli military plenty to drop on densely populated areas of Gaza.

The US announced in May that it was withholding the bomb shipments, claiming it was doing so to pressure Israel not to launch a major assault on Rafah without taking into account the around 1.4 million civilians who were sheltering there.

Israel ended up going ahead with the invasion and captured the Rafah border crossing, cutting off a vital channel for aid and strengthening the starvation blockade. The assault on Rafah left the city in rubble, and the majority of the civilians were forced to flee to overcrowded, unsanitary camps, which have been targeted by the Israeli military.

Throughout the assault, the US claimed it was a more limited operation than what Israel initially planned. Despite Israel committing massacres in the city using US-provided weapons, the US continued to support the attack.

The US is now sending the 500-pound bombs at a time when Israel has escalated operations across Gaza, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working to sabotage the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.