The United States has approved another $20bn in weapons transfers to Israel, despite concerns that Israeli forces are routinely violating international law in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The State Department announced on Tuesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had approved the arms sale, which includes fighter jets and missiles.
“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability,” the State Department said.
The order includes Boeing-made F-15 fighter jets, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, 120mm tank ammunition and high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles.
Some of the weapons, including the more than 50 fighter jets, could take years to deliver. Other equipment, such as 33,000 tank shells and 50,000 explosive mortar cartridges, could arrive soon.
The US said that the tank shells “will improve Israel’s capability to meet current and future enemy threats, strengthen its homeland defence and serve as a deterrent to regional threats”.
The announcement came as Israel expects retaliation from Iran and Lebanon-based Hezbollah following the assassinations of high-level Hamas and Hezbollah officials, which have raised concerns over the possibility of a regional war.
The US has said it is working to avoid such an escalation.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said an Iranian response might be avoided if a ceasefire agreement was reached to end the war in Gaza where Israeli forces have killed nearly 40,000 people, largely women and children, levelled entire neighbourhoods and blocked shipments of humanitarian assistance.
Critics have called on the Biden administration to cut off weapons transfers to Israel, alleging that they make the US complicit in the destruction of Gaza.
They also note that the supply of arms is a potential source of leverage, but that the administration has refused to exploit it to secure a ceasefire.
Reports that Israeli forces are systematically violating international law and committing abuses such as torture have also failed to stop the flow of weapons, despite requirements under US law that military units credibly accused of gross human rights violations be cut off from support.
Speaking before a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, called on Tuesday to discuss the deadly weekend air strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said her country’s goal in the region was to “turn the temperature down”.
