▲ An area damaged by Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, in June 2024 (File Photo)
The Donald Trump administration has approved the sale of approximately 3 trillion won worth of weapons to Israel, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on the 15th (local time), citing anonymous U.S. officials.
The decision comes amid growing negative public sentiment in the U.S. regarding military aid to Israel.
Controversy is expected to grow as the massive weapons purchase will effectively be funded by the U.S., and the sales list heavily includes high-capacity bombs that have been criticized for causing massive civilian casualties in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
According to the reports, the Trump administration has approved the sale to Israel of 20,000 MK-84 2,000-pound (approx. 900 kg) aerial bombs, 20,000 BLU-117 bombs, and 20,000 I-2000 penetrating warheads, and informally notified the relevant congressional committees of this fact.
The estimated value of the approved sales package reaches 2.8 billion dollars (approx. 3.8 trillion won).
This marks the largest single sales contract in recent years.
Although structured as a weapon sale, the purchase price is financed through the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.
The Washington Post pointed out that "the 2.8 billion dollars in weapons are being purchased with U.S. taxpayers' money."
The approved 2,000-pound bombs, the MK-84 and BLU-117, have been criticized by the international community for being used by the Israeli military in the Gaza war, resulting in massive civilian casualties.
Dropped by aircraft, the MK-84 bomb can cause lethal casualties from a distance of over 300 meters and leaves a crater up to 15 meters deep at the impact site, The New York Times explained.
Because its destructive power is so immense that it is likely to cause widespread civilian casualties around the target, it is known as a weapon that the U.S. military no longer uses in densely populated areas.
However, it has been revealed that the Israeli military dropped these bombs hundreds of times even in densely populated areas of Gaza that it had designated as "safe zones."
Amid rising domestic and international criticism that the U.S. military was supplying weapons for attacks violating international humanitarian norms, the preceding Joe Biden administration took steps to withhold the delivery of 2,000-pound aerial bombs to Israel in May 2024.
President Trump immediately resumed the delivery of these bombs to Israel shortly after taking office in January of last year.
It is also noteworthy that this decision to approve large-scale weapon sales comes at a time when opposition to U.S. military aid to Israel is growing and friction between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been exposed.
Ahead of the midterm elections in November, criticism is mounting in the U.S. that Israel has dragged the country into a war with Iran.
Although it was voted down, a bill to halt aid to Israel was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last July, garnering 104 affirmative votes.
Even within hardline conservative circles, including U.S. conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, the view is spreading that military aid to Israel prioritizes Israeli interests over American ones.
Amid this atmosphere, President Trump has expressed frustration toward Prime Minister Netanyahu over Israel's attacks on southern Lebanon and Syria following the outbreak of the Iran war, as well as the issue of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, widening the rift between the two leaders.
The Washington Post assessed that "the U.S. support for weapon sales took place despite tensions created between the Trump administration and Israel in various areas."
Meanwhile, The New York Times diagnosed that even if the weapon sales fail to win congressional approval, the Trump administration is expected to push them through.
The Trump administration previously bypassed congressional review last year to approve weapon sales totaling 2.04 billion dollars (2.8 trillion won), including the MK-84.
At the time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited reasons amounting to an emergency situation exempting the sales from congressional review.
For Congress to block the weapon sales, it would need to pass a resolution of disapproval, but obtaining a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to override President Trump's veto is realistically difficult.
Concerns from the international community, led by international human rights organizations, are expected to surge again over the U.S. mass approval of high-capacity bomb sales to Israel.
Brian Finucane, a senior advisor at the International Crisis Group (ICG), stated, "Given the way Israel has conducted airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and to some extent in southern Lebanon, there are real concerns about how these weapons will be used in populated areas."
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.