US officials say the US will start supplying Israel with 500-pound bombs again

Resuming the delivery of 500-pound bombs to Israel, President Joe Biden’s administration will not be sending any 2,000-pound bombs to Israel due to worries about their deployment in the heavily populated Gaza Strip, a U.S. official stated on Wednesday.

Fearing for their possible effects in Gaza during the conflict that started with Hamas’s fatal cross-border attack on October 7, the United States halted a shipment of 500- and 2,000-pound bombs in May.

The deployment of such massive bombs in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought safety, had been the administration’s main worry.

A U.S. official stated, speaking on the condition of anonymity, “We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs, particularly for Israel’s Rafah campaign which they have announced they are concluding.”

A single 2,000-pound bomb has the power to tear through metal and strong concrete, producing a large blast radius.

The 500-pound bombs were packaged in the same shipment as the larger ones, which were halted and caused a delay, according to the U.S. official.

“The possible use of 2,000-pound bombs in Rafah and other areas of Gaza has been and continues to be our primary concern. The person continued, “Those are proceeding as per normal procedure as our worry did not pertain to the 500 lb. explosives.

A person familiar with the situation claimed that the United States has informed Israel that it is releasing the 500-pound bombs but maintaining the hold on the larger ones.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, demanded action from American officials in June, alleging that Washington was withholding weaponry. The comments made by the Israeli leader confused and disappointed Biden’s aides.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated during his visit to Washington that “obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed” in reference to the subject of American weapons supply to Israel, which had made considerable progress.

Israel has been receiving American weapons on a regular basis notwithstanding the suspension of one shipment.

As per the report published by Reuters in October of last year, the United States has been involved in the transfer of at least 14,000 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 since the beginning of the Gaza war.

With almost 38,000 Palestinians killed in the conflict, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and the coastal enclave in ruins, international scrutiny of Israel’s military operation in Gaza has increased.

Beginning on October 7, Palestinian Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel, resulting in 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages, according to Israeli estimates. This marked the start of the most recent round of slaughter in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.