While ratcheting up criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet and allowing the Security Council to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza during the , the administration last week authorized the sending of more military aid to Israel , as revealed by The Washington Post. It was done in secret, without public explanation, and using a prior authorization from 2008, so it didn’t require going through a congressional vote again. The same media reported at the beginning of the month that the White House had authorized the sale of another hundred weapons without going through the legislature since the conflict began on October 7, after the attacks by Hamas.
Biden has now approved the shipment of more than 1,800 one-ton MK84 bombs and 500 250-kilogram MK82 bombs, as well as 25 F-35 fighter jets. MK84-class bombs, banned in densely populated areas, have caused numerous fatalities throughout Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to humanitarian organizations. However, the United States defends that Israel uses them “in compliance with international law” and in accordance with the National Security Memorandum approved last year by the Administration, which prohibits the supply of weapons to countries that block humanitarian assistance or attack the civilian population.
The Human Rights Watch and Oxfam claim that Israel has violated international humanitarian law and have asked the US to stop sending it weapons.
A United Nations panel of experts did the same in February, arguing that “any arms transfer to Israel is likely to violate international humanitarian law.”
Since October 7, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 32,000 people in Gaza, prompting consternation from the international community and warnings from its most important ally, the United States. For weeks, Biden has expressed concern about Israel’s plans to enter Rafah, the city in the south of the strip where hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge. He has also criticized the blockade of humanitarian aid by land, which has forced aid to be brought by sea and dropped by parachute.
But these criticisms have not slowed military support for Israel, which is still unconditional. The package approved last week adds to the $3.8 billion in annual aid that has been increasing throughout this century. The Washington Post estimates the cost of the new fighters and bombers at about $2.5 billion. They are part of a package approved by Congress in 2008 that had not yet been fully sent.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has pointed out the “unprecedented moral contradiction” that “demanding Netanyahu to stop killing civilians and supplying him with weapons” entails. Canada recently suspended military aid to Israel on humanitarian grounds, joining the Netherlands, Japan, Belgium and Spain, among others.
After vetoing four Security Council resolutions calling for a truce, the US finally on Monday abstained in the fifth vote, which demanded an “immediate and temporary ceasefire” during the month of Ramadan. In protest, Netanyahu canceled a visit by his advisers to Washington, which the White House says has already been rescheduled.
