The Trump administration has asked congressional leaders to approve a new $1 billion weapons transfer to Israel that will be funded by US military aid, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The deal includes 4,700 1,000-pound bombs worth more than $700 million and $300 million worth of armored bulldozers, which the Israeli military uses to demolish homes and infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank.
The request for the new arms transfer comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington and set to meet with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday. He’s expected to push for US support for Israel to restart its genocidal war in Gaza instead of fully implementing the ceasefire deal.
The Journal report said Netanyahu is also expecting Trump to push ahead with a massive $8 billion deal that President Biden notified congressional leaders about in early January. The report said some Democrats in Congress put a hold on the massive sale and that the Trump administration is now pushing congressional leaders to unblock it.
The $8 billion deal includes munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters as well as artillery shells. The Trump administration also recently released a hold on a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs for Israel.
Israeli officials suggested that the increased military aid was part of a deal to get Netanyahu to agree to the Gaza ceasefire deal. Trump’s envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, has said he’s pushing for the full implementation of the agreement, but the ceasefire is very fragile as Netanyahu doesn’t want to implement the second phase.
