US Considers New Weapons Deal With Israel Worth 1 Billion Dollars

JAKARTA - The United States government is considering a new $1 billion gun deal with Israel amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

The package of deals proposed by the Joe Biden government, reportedly as the largest package for Israel since the Hamas attack on October 7. The package includes 120mm tank ammunition worth 700 million US dollars, 500 million US dollars for tactical vehicles, and less than 100 million US dollars for 120 mm mortar bullets, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing US officials.

The sale of these weapons packages requires approval from the US Congress which could take months or even years to complete. The package is an additional military aid agreement than previously entered Congress. However, the report has not been confirmed by the US State Department to Anadolu.

The US is currently facing a series of criticisms for providing military assistance to Israel amid reports that the country is targeting civilians of which more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom are women and children.

In addition, there are credible reports of violations of international law and US law, including blocking American aid.

The report was broadcast amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel after Tehran launched a drone and fired missiles in retaliation for an Israeli attack on their consulate building in Syria on April 1, which killed seven Iranian military members, including two high-ranking commanders.

In March, six Democratic senators sent a letter to President Biden urging him to stop arms sales to Israel for violating the 1961 Act which prohibits arms sales to countries disrupting the delivery of American humanitarian aid.

"The US must not provide military assistance to any country that interferes with US humanitarian aid," the senators wrote. The federal law is very clear, and given the urgency of the crisis in Gaza and Netanyahu's repeated rejection of Prime Minister (Benjamin) to address US concerns about this issue, it is necessary to take immediate action to ensure policy changes by his government.

Earlier on February 8, a memorandum signed by Biden called on countries receiving US military assistance to provide "credicible and reliable written guarantees" to his government that these weapons would be used in accordance with "human rights law and international humanitarian law."

To that end, Israel submitted a warrant to the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March, but human rights groups said the guarantee was credible and urged the US government to stop sending weapons to Israel.

Meanwhile, US Foreign Ministry spokesman Matthew Miller last month said they had "undiscovered that (Israel) had violated international humanitarian law, both in terms of war implementation and in terms of providing humanitarian aid."