The Biden administration has secretly approved more than 100 separate Foreign Military Sales to Israel since October 7 to support the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
It’s unclear how many of the sales are being funded by the US, but many could be, as Israel receives $3.3 billion in annual Foreign Military Financing, a form of US military aid that gives foreign governments money to purchase US arms.
Only two sales have been made public, one for $106 million worth of 120mm tank ammunition and one for $147.5 million in components needed to make 155mm artillery shells. The Biden administration drew criticism for the deals because they bypassed Congress to push them through as quickly as possible.
US officials told the Post that there was no public debate for the other 100 deals because the dollar value fell under the threshold needed to inform Congress. Considering the vast number of arms sales in such a short period of time, making them low value was clearly an effort to keep the arms transfers out of the public eye as President Biden is under increasing scrutiny for supporting Israel’s genocidal campaign.
The Post report said that US officials told Congress during a classified briefing that the hundreds of sales amounted to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms, and other types of “lethal aid.”
The exact number of bombs and other types of equipment the US has delivered to Israel since October 7 is not clear. The Wall Street Journal reported on December 1 that the US had provided Israel with 57,000 artillery shells and 15,000 bombs, including massive bunker busters, but that figure is likely much higher since the report was published over three months ago.
The revelation from the Post comes as the Biden administration claims it’s pressuring Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, where children are starving to death and a major famine is imminent. But the US is not using any of its leverage over Israel as it continues to provide unconditional military aid for its military operations and starvation campaign.
Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 71,000 wounded in Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says about 70% of the casualties are women and children. Despite the massive civilian casualty rate, the US is looking to give Israel another $14 billion in military aid on top of the $3.8 billion it receives each year.