1,800 munitions weighing 2,000 lbs apiece unloaded at Ashdod Port, taken by trucks to Israeli airbases, weeks after Trump lifts hold on delivery
A shipment of some 1,800 heavy bombs from the United States that had been held up by the previous American administration arrived in Israel overnight, the Defense Ministry announced on Sunday.
A ship carrying the MK-84 2,000-lb munitions docked at Ashdod Port and was unloaded onto dozens of trucks and taken to Israeli airbases, the ministry said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz hailed the arrival of the bombs, saying in a statement: “The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel tonight, released by the Trump administration, represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States.”
“I thank President Donald Trump and the US administration for their unwavering support of the State of Israel. We will continue working together to strengthen our security,” Katz added.
According to the ministry, since the beginning of the war in October 2023, over 76,000 tons of military equipment have arrived in Israel on 678 transport planes and 129 ships, the vast majority from the US.
The US rushed billions of dollars in military aid to Israel throughout the past 16 months of war in Gaza, sparked by the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, assault in southern Israel.
But the Biden administration acknowledged that it stopped fast-tracking weapons to Israel later in the war, and instead required each transfer to go through the usual approval process, as is the case for other countries.
In May, the White House announced a decision to withhold a shipment of 1,800 2,000-lb bombs and 1,700 500-lb bombs, with then-US president Joe Biden threatening to freeze additional offensive weaponry if Israel launched a major military offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians were sheltering at the time.
In July, the 500-lb bombs were eventually released by the Biden administration after the IDF entered Rafah. The Palestinian civilian population in the Strip’s southernmost city had largely evacuated by then.
The Biden administration had asserted that only the 2,000-pound bombs were withheld, over concerns that Israel would use them in densely populated parts of Gaza, and that all other shipments had been processed.
In October, the US warned Israel in a letter that it had a month to significantly alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the war or risk the US withholding weapons shipments. But the threat never materialized, and the Biden administration acknowledged in November that Israel had taken some — though not all — of the steps demanded of it.
Last month, shortly after becoming president, Trump announced that he had lifted the hold put in place by Biden on the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs for Israel.
As reported by The Times of Israel