Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the US expects President Trump to supply Israel with a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that President Biden paused, Axios reported on Monday.
Biden put a hold on a 2,000-pound bomb shipment and a 500-pound bomb shipment back in April as part of a public relations stunt to make it seem like he was putting pressure on Israel over its plans to invade the southern city of Rafah.
Israel ended up invading Rafah, capturing its border crossing with Egypt, and now the city lies in ruin. Other US weapons continued to flow to Israel, and the pause on the 500-pound bombs was lifted in July, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the pause on the 2,000-pound bombs to complain that Biden was restricting military aid.
Republicans in the US also claimed Biden was restricting military aid to Israel even though he supplied more weapons to Israel in a single year than any other president in history.
“We believe that Trump is going to release, at the beginning of his term, the munitions that haven’t been released until now by the Biden administration,” Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog told Axios.
The release of the bombs is part of a series of agreements the Trump administration reached with Israel to get Netanyahu to agree to the hostage ceasefire deal.
“The Trump team played a major role. They were resolved to get a deal but were very cognizant of our security concerns,” Herzog said. “They got some things from the Israeli side that allowed the deal to go through, and they gave us some things and will give more going forward.”
Netanyahu has said he received assurances from Trump that he could resume military operations in Gaza if he chooses to do so, something Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has confirmed. But there are signs the Trump administration will push for the deal to stick.
Herzog also said he expects Trump to take action against the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
