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Reuters quoted two US officials as saying that the administration of President Joe Biden has sent Tel Aviv large quantities of ammunition, including more than 10,000 highly destructive bombs weighing 2,000 pounds and thousands of Hellfire missiles, since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip in October.
The agency added, citing the two officials who are not authorized to speak publicly, that the United States has transferred between the start of the war last October and the past few days, at least 14,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 precision-guided air-to-ground Hellfire missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 small-diameter air-dropped bombs and other munitions.
The two officials, who were familiar with an updated list of arms shipments, did not give a timeline for arms shipments, but the overall numbers indicate that there is no significant decline in US military support for its alliance, despite international calls to limit arms supplies and the recent administration’s decision to suspend a shipment of powerful bombs.
“While these numbers (of munitions) could be exhausted relatively quickly in a major conflict, this list clearly reflects a significant level of support by the United States for our Israeli allies,” said Tom Karako, a weapons expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that the munitions listed The kind that Israel needs in its war on Gaza or in a potential conflict with the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
One US official said the shipments were part of a larger list of weapons sent to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza. On Wednesday, a senior Biden administration official told reporters that Washington has sent $6.5 billion in security aid to Israel since October 7.
The American-backed Israeli war, which has been ongoing since last October 7, resulted in more than 124,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing persons amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens of children.