US approves $20 billion weapons package for Israel

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday approved more than $20 billion in new weapons sales to Israel, brushing aside pressure from rights activists to stop arms deliveries over the death toll in Gaza.

The sale comes as Biden has pressed Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire after 10 months of bloodshed, although the weapons would take years to reach Israel.

In a notification to Congress, the State Department said it had approved a sale of 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel for $18.82 billion.

Israel will also buy nearly 33,000 tank cartridges, up to 50,000 explosive mortar cartridges and new military cargo vehicles.

The F-15 aircraft, which will begin to be delivered in 2029, will upgrade Israel's current fleet and include radar and secure communications equipment.

"The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability," the State Department said in its notice on the F-15s, which are made by Boeing.

On the tank cartridges, the United States said the sale "will improve Israel's capability to meet current and future enemy threats, strengthen its homeland defense and serve as a deterrent to regional threats."

The US Congress can block weapons sales, but such a process is difficult.

Human rights groups and some left-leaning members of Biden's Democratic Party have urged the administration to curb or stop weapons sales to Israel, voicing revulsion at civilian casualties in the Gaza conflict.

Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department last year in protest at policy on Gaza, said Israel had given the United States no reason to believe it is moving away from "abject brutality."

"Authorizing billions of dollars in new arms transfers effectively provides Israel a carte blanche to continue its atrocities in Gaza and to escalate the conflict to Lebanon," said Paul, now at the Middle East rights group Dawn.

On Saturday, rescuers in the Hamas-run territory of Gaza said that 93 people were killed in an Israeli air strike at a school housing displaced Palestinians.

Israel said it was targeting militants operating out of the school. Biden administration officials voiced concern over civilian deaths and declined comment on whether US weapons were used.

In May, Biden froze a shipment to Israel that included 2,000-pound bombs as he warned against a mass-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where vast numbers of displaced Palestinians were living.

But the administration said it has not stopped other weapons and dismissed complaints in June by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States was slowing down deliveries.

Israel's military offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,929 people, according to a toll from the territory's health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.

In a speech to Congress last month boycotted by many Democrats, Netanyahu called on the United States to fast-track military aid, saying it would "dramatically expedite an end to the war in Gaza."