Biden goes ahead with more than $1 billion in weapons to Israel

The Biden administration has informed Congress it intends to transfer more than $1 billion in weapons to Israel, a week after President Joe Biden said he was pausing the shipment of some heavy bombs to the country, a lawmaker familiar with the matter confirmed to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity.

The Biden administration paused the shipment of 3,500 bombs to Israel over concerns they could be used in a major military operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million refugees have been sheltering.

The latest weapons package includes the potential transfer of $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the development. The transfer will undergo congressional review before they are approved and sent.

It was not immediately clear if the more than $1 billion package included the weapons that were paused.

The administration began a review of some weapons transfers to Israel last month, and the president paused a shipment of 1,800 2,000-lb bombs and 1,700 500-lb bombs last week, as Israel ramped up plans for a ground invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city. The president worried they would be used on "population centers" in Rafah.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that the United States has sent a massive amount of military assistance to Israel to defend itself against all threats, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran and its other proxies and would continue to provide assistance.

"We are continuing to send military assistance, and we will ensure that Israel receives the full amount provided in the supplemental," said Sullivan. "We have paused a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs because we do not believe they should be dropped in densely populated cities.  We are talking to the Israeli government about this."

Biden acknowledged last week the role American bombs had played in civilian deaths since Israel’s war in Gaza began seven months ago - and for the first time said he was prepared to put conditions on American weapons if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes ahead with a major invasion of Rafah.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” referring to 2,000-pound bombs that he paused shipments of last week.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said. “It's just wrong. We're not going to supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used (there)."

On Oct. 7, Hamas killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 more as hostages. In the seven months since, Israel's retaliatory attacks have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

The war has also unleashed a humanitarian crisis. About 1.1 million people in Gaza – half of the population – have completely exhausted their food supplies and coping capacities and are struggling with catastrophic hunger and starvation, according to the U.N’ s World Food Program.

Sullivan on Monday said it would be a mistake to launch a major military operation into the heart of Rafah that would put huge numbers of civilians at risk without a clear strategic gain.

"The President was clear that he would not supply certain offensive weapons for such an operation, were it to occur," Sullivan said. "It has not yet occurred.  And we are still working with Israel on a better way to ensure the defeat of Hamas everywhere in Gaza."

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SwapnaVenugopal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden wants Congress to OK $1 billion in weapons for Israel