Biden Approves New $680 Million Arms Sale to Israel, Despite Lebanon Ceasefire

The Biden administration is reportedly advancing a sale of weapons, worth nearly $700 million, to Israel as its military furthers its plan of ethnic cleansing in north Gaza and despite the ceasefire agreement Israel reached with Hezbollah this week.

As first reported by Financial Times, which cited people familiar with the sale, the administration has notified Congress that it is moving forward with a $680 million arms sale that includes thousands of JDAMs and 615 small diameter bombs — both of which Israel has used extensively in attacks against Palestinians in Gaza that experts have said are war crimes.

The additional weapons sale comes on top of the record $18 billion in military aid the Biden administration already sent in the first year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as at least over a hundred weapons transfers not publicly reported by the administration.

It also comes as the U.S. is slated to send $20 billion in weapons to Israel, including fighter jets, JDAMs, and tank ammunition, among other weapons. Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) brought a set of resolutions to block three parts of the sale, totalling just $1 billion of the deal, but the legislation only got the approval of about a fifth of the Senate.

U.S. officials have said that the weapons transfer is not related to the ceasefire agreement struck this week in Lebanon, which began early Wednesday morning. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, per Financial Times, that the weapons deal was only struck to make the deal happen, while also saying that there have been “big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries,” without evidence.

U.S. officials have denied the delays. In October, the Biden administration threatened to withhold weapons transfers if Israel did not take steps to ameliorate the humanitarian catastrophe it has created in Gaza within 30 days. Within that period, Israeli forces instead worsened their humanitarian blockade, making the situation even more dire — and yet, the administration said that it hadn’t seen evidence that it should withhold weapons, defying its own ultimatum.

Experts, lawmakers and advocates for Palestinian rights have long said that it is clear that continuing to send weapons to Israel violates domestic and international law regarding human rights.

“President Biden is spending the final days of his presidency going against the will of most Americans, U.S. law, and international law,” said the International Middle East Understanding Policy Project. “The weapons included in this package have been used by Israel in numerous apparent war crimes.”

Rights groups and analysts have documented dozens of incidents in which Israel used U.S. weapons on Gaza and Lebanon in what they say are likely war crimes, while numerous UN experts have said that just the act of sending Israel weapons as it carries out its illegal occupation of Palestine can render a state complicit in violations of international law.

Just this week, investigations by The Guardian and Human Rights Watch found that Israeli forces used a U.S.-provided JDAM kit in an attack on journalists in Lebanon in October, killing three and injuring four others in their sleep. Human Rights Watch found that Israel likely deliberately targeted civilians in the attack, which would make it a war crime.

The risk of U.S. weapons being used to commit war crimes is still ever-present. For nearly two months, Israel has been carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing and extermination in north Gaza, aiming to destroy all conditions of life in the region in order to wipe out the remaining population of Palestinians there. At the same time, Israeli forces have continued to bomb central and southern Gaza, and have been firing on people in Lebanon even after the ceasefire began on Wednesday.