Reuters, May 10 A supply of powerful, bunker-busting bombs to Israel has been halted by Washington. Israeli forces have been using these weapons to fight Hamas militants, which has resulted in the deaths of about 35,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In addition, President Joe Biden publicly for the first time warned Israel in a CNN interview on May 8 that if Israeli forces carried out a threatened attack on the Gaza city of Rafah, hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians there could be in danger of dying. If this happened, the United States would withhold arms supplies.

For an extended period, the United States has been the primary provider of armaments to its closest Middle East ally, Italy, and Germany, whose robust backing for Israel is partly a kind of reparation for the Nazi Holocaust.

This year, two nations—Canada and the Netherlands—have stopped sending weapons to Israel because of fear that they would be used in a way that violates international humanitarian law in Gaza, killing civilians and destroying residential areas.
International rights groups claim that civilians have been the majority of those killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli ground offensives and airstrikes. Israel claims that it does not attack civilians, while Hamas fighters dispute this claim and claim to be hiding among them.

U.S. authorities stated that the weapons being withheld from Israel were 1,800 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds (907 kg) and 1,700 bombs weighing 500 pounds, all of which were valued at tens of millions of dollars.

According to a U.S. official, the decision was made due to worries about the “end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings (like Rafah)”.

Though the licensing process has delayed, billions of dollars’ worth of US supplies, including munitions that turn dumb bombs into precise weapons and tank rounds, are still in the pipeline for Israel, according to Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who made this announcement on May 9.

According to an Axios story published on May 9, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has refrained from declaring that Israel has broken the conditions for using American weapons in Gaza in a very critical report that is still pending before Congress.

A third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel was signed in 2016. It covered the years 2018–2028 and included $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in subsidies for the purchase of military hardware, and $5 billion for missile defense systems.

According to a March information sheet released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 69% of Israel’s military aid came from the United States during the 2019–2023 period.

As of last year, Israel had received 36 of the 75 F-35s ordered, paying for them with aid from the United States. Israel is the first foreign operator of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is considered the most technologically advanced fighter jet ever manufactured.

The Iron Dome short-range rocket defense system was created by Israel with assistance from the United States following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon. In order to assist in restocking the system’s interceptor missiles, the United States has frequently provided Israel hundreds of millions of dollars.

The “David’s Sling” device, which Israel developed to shoot down missiles fired from 100 to 200 kilometers (62 to 124 miles) distant, was partially funded by Washington.

In 2023, German defense export permits to Israel increased by over ten times to 326.5 million euros ($351 million) over 2022 levels. This was due to Berlin giving precedence to permit requests following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which started the Gaza war.

But as international condemnation of Israel’s war in Gaza has grown since the beginning of the year, it seems that the German government has authorized significantly less war weapon deliveries to Israel. In response to a question posed in parliament by a left-wing MP on April 10, the economics ministry stated that deliveries totaling just 32,449 euros have been approved thus far.

The German press outlet dpa, which broke the initial news of the 2023 statistics, claims that Germany mainly provides Israel with parts for communications and air defense systems.

Among the weapons exported were 500,000 rounds of ammunition for automatic or semi-automatic guns and 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons. According to SIPRI data, Germany supplied over 30% of Israel’s military assistance between 2019 and 2023.

On May 9, a source in the Foreign Ministry verified that Italy has stopped approving new exports since the beginning of the Gaza conflict. “Everything came to an end.

Additionally, the source informed Reuters that the final orders were delivered in November.
Arms exports to nations engaged in warfare or thought to be in violation of international human rights are prohibited under Italian law.

Italy has continued to export weapons to Israel, according to Defense Minister Guido Crosetto’s statement in March. However, he added that only previously signed orders were being executed after assurances were made that the weapons would not be used against Gaza civilians.

Italy sent Israel 1.3 million euros worth of weapons in December alone, which is three times more than it did in the same month in 2022.
According to SIPRI’s study, Italy supplied 0.9% of Israel’s imported weapons in 2019–23, allegedly including naval artillery and helicopters.

Israel does not have many major suppliers in Britain. In contrast to the United States, the government of Britain grants permits to firms so they can sell weaponry to Israel; these components are frequently integrated into U.S. supply chains, as exemplified by the F-35 jets.

Israel received export permits from Britain last year to purchase defense equipment worth at least 42 million pounds ($52.5 million), primarily in the form of ammunition, unmanned aerial vehicles, small arms ammunition, and parts for assault rifles, helicopters, and airplanes.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak informed the assembly that Britain has one of the tightest licensing control systems in the world, wherein it regularly evaluated recommendations regarding Israel’s adherence to humanitarian law. “With regard to export licenses, following the most recent assessment, it is unchanged,” he stated.

In light of the increasing number of deaths in Gaza, the left-wing opposition parties have demanded that the government cancel the export permits and make public the legal counsel that was utilized to determine that arms exports could go forward.