The United States has approved and delivered on more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October 7, US officials recently told Congress in a classified briefing, according to a Washington Post report citing unnamed officials.
According to the report, the sales included thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs and other weapons. They did not need to first be approved by Congress as the cost of each sale fell below the minimum amount that would require them to be considered, according to the report.
Speaking to the Washington Post, former Biden administration official Jeremy Konyndyk said that the “extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time” suggests that Israel would not be able to maintain its operation against Hamas in Gaza “without this level of US support.” Konyndyk is the current president of Refugees International and has called on the US to use weapons sales to pressure Israel to cease fire in Gaza.
State Department spokesman Matt Miller tells the Washington Post that the Biden administration has “followed the procedures Congress itself has specified to keep members well-informed and regularly briefs members even when formal notification is not a legal requirement.”
US officials have “engaged Congress” on arms deliveries to Israel “more than 200 times” since October, Miller says.
The report says a senior State Department official declined to provide the total number of all US weapons transferred to Israel, or their costs, since October 7, but says they include new sales and “active” Foreign Military Sales or FMSs
“These are items that are typical for any modern military, including one that is as sophisticated as Israel’s,” the official says.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-quietly-approved-over-100-arms-sales-to-israel-since-october-7-report/.