The United States approved on Tuesday, August 13, the sale of arms to its Israeli ally worth more than 20 billion dollars, brushing aside pressure from human rights organizations to stop the shipments. The announcement comes as the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas enters its 11th month and US President Joe Biden pushes for a ceasefire.
Key facts:
⇒ US approves $20 billion arms sale to Israel
⇒ Biden believes Gaza ceasefire could deter Iran from attacking Israel
⇒ Five Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank
50 F-15 fighter jets sold to Israel
The State Department said in a notification to the US Congress that the $20 billion arms sale to Israel would “enhance Israel’s ability to confront current and future enemy threats.”
The sale includes 50 F-15 fighter jets worth $18.82 billion, nearly 33,000 tank munitions and 50,000 mortar rounds. These deliveries will take years: the F-15s, equipped with secure radar and communications equipment, will not begin to be delivered until 2029.
“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to help Israel develop and maintain a significant self-defense capability,” the State Department said in its memo regarding the sale of the F-15s, built by Boeing.
Biden says Gaza ceasefire could deter Iran from attacking Israel
Joe Biden said on Tuesday that an agreement on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip could deter Iran, as talks on a truce are due to resume on Thursday at the request of the mediating countries, Qatar, the United States and Egypt.
“That’s what I believe,” he said, when asked about this scenario, assuring that he “was not giving up” on the objective of a ceasefire even though the negotiations are becoming “difficult.” Faced with the risk of an extension of the war, Joe Biden and his counterparts from France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom had called on Tehran on Monday to “renounce its threats of a military attack against Israel.”
“The Islamic Republic is determined to defend its sovereignty,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on Tuesday.
Washington deems Israeli minister’s prayer on Esplanade of the Mosques “unacceptable”
The United States on Tuesday called “unacceptable” the prayer led by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir at the highly sensitive site of the Esplanade of the Mosques in East Jerusalem on the occasion of a Jewish holiday.
Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right settler familiar with provocations, prayed with some 3,000 worshipers at the site on Tuesday for the Jewish holiday Tisha B’Av, calling in particular to “defeat” Hamas rather than negotiate with the Palestinian Islamist movement. “The United States stands firmly for the preservation of the historical status quo with regard to the holy sites in Jerusalem and any unilateral action, such as this one […] “That threatens that status quo is unacceptable,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
Six Palestinians killed by Israeli army in occupied West Bank
Six Palestinians were killed early Wednesday by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency and the local governor announced.
“Five people were killed in Israeli raids, four in the town of Tammoun and one in the city of Toubas,” Toubas Governor Ahmad Saad said. The Israeli army, he added, is “holding the bodies of the five” men, a retaliatory measure that Israeli forces regularly use in the West Bank.
The Israeli army, for its part, claims to have “launched an anti-terrorist operation” in Toubas, “eliminating a terrorist” and having “hit others during exchanges of fire”. It adds in its press release that it has “arrested wanted persons and located and confiscated weapons”.