Jerusalem (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Israel’s defense ministry said it had received a shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs from the United States.
The shipment came after U.S. President Donald Trump removed a block set on the export of the munitions by the government of their predecessor, Joe Biden.
The MK-84 is an unguided 2,000-pound bomb that is capable of ripping through concrete and metal, forming a comprehensive blast radius. The Biden government declined to greenlight them for export to Israel due to concerns about the impact on densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip.
The shipment of munitions delivered to Israel tonight, made available by the Trump Administration, is a valuable asset to the Air Force and the IDF and further demonstrates the close relationship between Israel and the United States,
Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
How will the new US weapons impact Israel’s military?
The weapons arrived after days of worry about whether a delicate ceasefire in Gaza agreed last month would survive after both sides blamed each other for breaking the terms of the agreement to halt fighting to permit the exchange of hostages carried in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and inmates in Israeli jails. The US has announced aid for Israel worth billions of dollars since the war started.
Experts expressed the contents of the shipments seem compatible with what Israel would require to replenish supplies utilized in this eight-month intense military movement in Gaza, which it undertook after the October 7, 2023 raid by Palestinian Hamas militants.
How many bombs has the US supplied to Israel?
The Biden government dispatched thousands of 2,000-pound weapons to Israel after the October 7, 2023, raid by Hamas from Gaza but failed to deliver one of the shipments. The delay was removed by Trump last month.
According to unofficial estimates, since the war started, the United States has moved around 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, and other weapons.
