WASHINGTON: The Biden administration has sent to Israel large numbers of munitions, including more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles, since the start of the war in Gaza, said two US officials briefed on an updated list of weapons shipments.
Between the war’s start last October and recent days, the United States has transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions, according to the officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
While the officials didn’t give a timeline for the shipments, the totals suggest there has been no significant drop-off in US military support for its ally, despite international calls to limit weapons supplies and a recent administration decision to pause a shipment of powerful bombs.
Experts said the contents of the shipments appear consistent with what Israel would need to replenish supplies used in this eight-month intense military campaign in Gaza, which it launched after the Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
“While these numbers could be expended relatively quickly in a major conflict, this list clearly reflects a substantial level of support from the United States for our Israeli allies,” said Tom Karako, a weapons expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, adding that the listed munitions were the type Israel would use in its fight against Hamas or in a potential conflict with Hezbollah.
The delivery numbers, which have not been previously reported, provide the most up-to-date and extensive tally of munitions shipped to Israel since the Gaza war began.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have been trading fire since the start of the Gaza war, and concern is rising that an all-out war could break out between the two sides.
The White House declined to comment. Israel’s Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shipments are part of a bigger list of weapons sent to Israel since the Gaza conflict began, one of the US officials said. A senior Biden administration official on Wednesday told reporters that Washington has since Oct. 7 sent $6.5 billion worth of weapons to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks claimed that Washington was withholding weapons, a suggestion US officials have repeatedly denied even though they acknowledged some “bottlenecks.”
The Biden administration has paused one shipment of the 2,000-pound bomb, citing concern over the impact it could have in densely populated areas in Gaza, but US officials insist that all other arms deliveries continue as normal. One 2,000-pound bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius.
Reuters reported on Thursday that the United States is discussing with Israel the release of a shipment of large bombs that was suspended in May over worries about the military operation in Rafah.
International scrutiny of Israel’s military operation in Gaza has intensified as the Palestinian death toll from the war has exceeded 37,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the coastal enclave in ruins.
Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to its longtime ally. While Biden has warned that he would place conditions on military aid if Israel fails to protect civilians and allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, he has not done so beyond delaying the May shipment.
Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas has emerged as a political liability, particularly among young Democrats, as he runs for re-election this year. It fueled a wave of “uncommitted” protest votes in primaries and has driven pro-Palestinian protests at US universities.
While the United States provides detailed descriptions and quantities of military aid sent to Ukraine as it fights a full-scale invasion of Russia, the administration has revealed few details about the full extent of US weapons and munitions sent to Israel.
The shipments are also hard to track because some of the weapons are shipped as part of arms sales approved by Congress years ago but only now being fulfilled.
One of the US officials said the Pentagon has sufficient quantities of weapons in its own stocks and had been liaising with US industry partners who make the weapons, such as Boeing Co. and General Dynamics, as the companies work to manufacture more.
US has sent Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs since Oct. 7
https://arab.news/8t6zw
US has sent Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs since Oct. 7
- Totals suggest there has been no significant drop-off in US military support for its ally
- Shipments appear consistent with what Israel would need to replenish supplies used for intense military campaign in Gaza
Libya fully reopens major Ras Ajdir border crossing with Tunisia
After calm returned to the region, the border crossing was partially reopened in mid-June though just for humanitarian and medical cases as well as special cases with permits from the Tunisian and Algerian interior ministries.
A number of ambulances from the Libyan side were seen heading into Tunisia during the reopening ceremony attended by the interior minister of Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, Emad Trabulsi, and his Tunisian counterpart Khaled Nouri.
“Two hours after this ceremony, Libyan citizens will be able to go to Tunisia,” Trabulsi told journalists at the crossing.
Nouri said the crossing had been “reopened for all activities except smuggling.”
Ras Ajdir is the main frontier crossing in Libya’s west, often used by Libyans to go to Tunisia for medical treatment and Tunisian traders moving goods in the opposite direction.
Libya has enjoyed little peace since a 2011 uprising and is split between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing each area. The GNU, which controls Tripoli and northwestern parts of Libya, is recognized internationally but not by the eastern-based parliament.
Trabulsi called on Libyans living near the western border to support regional security forces “in order to combat smuggling and illegal migration.”
He said Libya would open two new border crossings with Tunisia “if capabilities are provided.” Besides Ras Ajdir, the two countries have a minor crossing at Wazen-Dhehiba that has remained open.
Lebanon army receives additional $20 million from Qatar in support to troops
- Support comes at a crucial time, with the Israeli military and Hezbollah trading fire across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the Gaza war
BEIRUT: The Lebanese army has received an additional $20 million from Qatar in support of Lebanese troops, Lebanon’s state agency NNA said on Monday.
The support comes at a crucial time, with the Israeli military and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah trading fire across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the Gaza war. The Lebanese army is not involved in the hostilities but one Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli shelling in December.
A security source told Reuters that the new Qatari aid was a continuation of an earlier $60 million package announced in 2022 that was distributed in instalments to soldiers to support their salaries.
The source said $100 would be distributed to each soldier every month.
A five-year economic meltdown has slashed the value of the Lebanese pound against the dollar, driving down most soldiers’ wages to less than $100 per month.
The amount is barely enough to afford a basic subscription to a generator service that could offset the 22-hour cuts in the state electricity grid.
To supplement their low salaries, many troops have taken extra jobs and some have quit, raising concerns that the institution — one of few in Lebanon that can rally national pride and create unity across its fractured sectarian communities — could be fraying.
Gaza hospital chief among Palestinians freed by Israel
- Al-Shifa director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was detained in November
- Successive raids have seen the hospital reduced to rubble since Oct. 7
JERUSALEM: Israel released the head of Gaza’s biggest hospital, who had been detained for more than seven months, among dozens of Palestinian prisoners returned Monday to the besieged territory for treatment.
His release was confirmed on social media by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and by a medical source inside the Gaza Strip.
Al-Shifa director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was detained in November.
Successive raids have seen the hospital where he worked largely reduced to rubble since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel.
Salmiya and the other freed detainees crossed back into Gaza from Israel just east of Khan Younis, a medical source at the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir El-Balah said.
Five detainees were admitted to Al-Aqsa hospital and the others were sent to hospitals in Khan Younis, the source added.
An AFP correspondent at Deir El-Balah saw some detainees have emotional reunions with their families.
Israel’s military said it was “checking” reports about the prisoner release.
However, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir confirmed the release when he posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Salmiya’s release “with dozens of other terrorists is security abandonment.”
Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a cover for military operations and infrastructure.
The militant group, which has run the territory since 2007, denies the allegations.
In May, Palestinian rights groups said a senior Al-Shifa surgeon had died in an Israeli jail after being detained. Israel’s army said it was unaware of the death.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,877 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Turkiye arrests 67 after mob attacks Syrian properties
ISTANBUL: Turkish police were holding 67 people Monday after a mob went on the rampage in a central Anatolian city after a Syrian man was accused of harassing a child.
A group of men targeted Syrian businesses and properties in Kayseri on Sunday evening, with videos on social media showing a grocery store being set on fire.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the latest bout of violence against Turkiye’s large community of Syrian refugees.
“No matter who they are, setting streets and people’s houses on fire is unacceptable,” he said, warning that hate speech should not be used for political gains.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the Syrian national, identified only by his initials as I.A., was caught by Turkish citizens and delivered to the police.
Yerlikaya said on X that the Syrian man was suspected of harassing a Syrian girl, who was his relative.
He said Turks who gathered in the area acted “illegally” and in a manner “that does not suit our human values,” damaging houses, shops and cars belonging to Syrians.
Sixty-seven people were detained after the attacks, he said.
“Turkiye is a state of law and order. Our security forces continue their fight against all crimes and criminals today, as they did yesterday.”
In one of the videos a Turkish man was heard shouting: “We don’t want any more Syrians! We don’t want any more foreigners.”
Local authorities called for calm and revealed the victim was a five-year-old Syrian national.
Turkiye, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees, has been shaken several times by bouts of xenophobic violence in recent years, often triggered by rumors spreading on social media and instant messaging applications.
In August 2021, groups of men targeted businesses and homes occupied by Syrians in the capital Ankara, after a brawl which cost the life of a 18-year-old man.
The fate of Syrian refugees is also a burning issue in Turkish politics, with Erdogan’s opponents in last year’s election promising to send them back to Syria.
KSrelief treats thousands as health work continues in Yemen, Syria
- The dialysis center in Al-Ghaydah, in Yemen’s eastern province of Al-Mahra, treated 125 patients
RIYADH: A dialysis service by Saudi aid agency KSrelief treated scores of patients during May, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The dialysis center in Al-Ghaydah, in Yemen’s eastern province of Al-Mahra, treated 125 patients, including 53 who underwent a collective total of 441 scheduled kidney dialysis sessions and three emergency sessions.
Additionally, 75 patients were examined and received medical consultations at the center’s kidney disease clinic, said the report.
Of the total number of patients, 45 percent were male and 55 percent female. Residents made up 84 percent of those who were treated, while 1 percent were refugees and 15 percent were displaced.
Meanwhile KSrelief has continued to implement a project to enhance healthcare services for Syrian refugees and the host community in the town of Arsal, in Baalbek, Lebanon.
During May 2024, the Arsal Healthcare Center saw 12,789 patients who accessed services including clinics, pharmacy, laboratory, nursing, community health and psychological health programs.
The patients comprised 41 percent male and 59 percent female, with r
Some 41 percent of the patients were male and 59 percent female. Refugees made up 75 percent of the total, while the remaining 25 percent were residents.
