US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that a ‘large number of things’ ordered by Israel from the US had now been delivered, in response to press reports that his administration had released a delivery of 2,000 pound (907kg) bombs.
‘A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but not sent by Biden, are now on their way!’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform.
Last year, the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden suspended deliveries to Israel of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs, as the Israeli army planned a large-scale offensive on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where 1.4 million Palestinians displaced by bombing and fighting had taken refuge.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Donald Trump on Sunday for providing Israel with what he described as "tools" to defend itself, after the US president reportedly authorised the transfer of 2,000-pound bombs.
"Thank you President Trump for keeping your promise to give Israel the tools it needs to defend itself, to confront our common enemies and to secure a future of peace and prosperity," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Earlier on Sunday, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also thanked Trump for the transfer of a "crucial defence shipment" to Israel.
Neither have specified what Trump had approved.
Mr Biden had warned that the use of this type of bomb in such areas would cause a ‘great human tragedy’.
A few days before Mr Biden left the White House, Israel and Hamas agreed a truce aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
The ceasefire still holds, and Israel and Hamas exchanged a second group of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners over the weekend.
Mr Trump's message did not specify which weapons had been unblocked.
In an article published on Axios, Israeli national security journalist Barak Ravid wrote that Trump had ordered the Ministry of Defence to lift the block on 2,000-pound bombs.
This type of large air-dropped bomb, which is both accurate and has great destructive power, is generally used to cause widespread damage to targets such as military installations, command centres and infrastructure.
During his first presidential term, Donald Trump often boasted that Israel ‘never had a better friend in the White House’, a sentiment often repeated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With AFP.
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