The State Department has informally notified Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale to support Israel's long-term security by restocking critical munitions and air defenses, a U.S. official familiar with the details confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.
President Biden has made it clear that Israel has the right to defend its own citizens if an American ally insists on doing so the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Some of the weapons in the package may be shipped through current U.S. stockpiles, but most will take a year to several years to arrive, the U.S. official said.
OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images
The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles to help Israel defend against aerial threats, 155mm long-range artillery shells, AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, 500-pound bombs and more.
News of the arms sale was first reported by Axios.
The weapons package would supplement a record military aid of at least $17.9 billion that the US provides Israel after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas that started the war.
The Biden administration has faced criticism over the rising death toll of Palestinian civilians. There were demonstrations on college campuses and unsuccessful efforts in Congress by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, and some Democrats to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel.
USA suspended the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in May due to concerns about civilian casualties if the bombs are used during the assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Biden administration has demanded that Israel increase humanitarian aid to the enclave. But in November, citing some limited progress, it refused to limit arms shipments, as it had threatened to do if the situation did not improve.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AP
Israel was in the last days airstrikes in Gaza which have killed dozens of people, adding to the tens of thousands of deaths since the war began more than a year ago.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had struck dozens of Hamas assembly points and command centers across Gaza. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for the civilian deaths because its militants operate in densely populated areas.
The war caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times. Winter has comeand hundreds of thousands are hiding in tents near the sea.
The informal notice to Congress is not the final notice before the sale. The heads of the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee can now review the package.
contributed to this report.