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The Biden administration recently approved five major arms sales to Israel for F-15 fighter aircraft, tank ammunition, tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, mortar rounds, and related equipment for each. Though technically sales, most if not all of this matériel is paid for by U.S. taxpayers — Israel uses much of the military aid Congress approves for it effectively as a gift card to buy U.S.-made weapons.
The total value of the five weapons sales exceeds $20.3 billion.
More extraordinary than the price tag of these arms deals is that the White House made them public. Prior to last week’s announcements, it had disclosed just two arms sales to Israel. By March, the Biden administration had already greenlit more than 100 separate weapons deals for Israel, or about one every 36 hours, on average. The administration presumably kept the value of each arms deal “under threshold” to avoid having to notify Congress.
From 2017 to 2019, the U.S. had approved thousands of below-threshold arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth a total of $11.2 billion. Exploiting this loophole helped the Trump administration avoid scrutiny of its enabling of a devastating and indiscriminate bombing campaign in Yemen. The Biden administration appears to be following the same playbook for the destruction it is enabling in Gaza.
The White House isn’t shy about publicizing arms transfers to other countries. For example, it has been very transparent about the military aid it sent Ukraine since February 2022. Biden promotes arming Ukraine as industrial policy, marketing the military aid as a boon for domestic manufacturing and jobs. The Pentagon not only itemizes what specific matériel the U.S. sends to Ukraine, but also shows on a map where in the U.S. those weapons and equipment are made.
By contrast, nearly all the publicly available information on U.S. arms transfers to Israel comes from leaks reported by the media. The Biden administration says very little about the weapons it delivers to Israel or how the Israeli military uses them. The following analysis is intended to shed light on both. In doing so, it helps explain why the Biden administration prefers to arm Israel in secret.
What follows is a non-exhaustive list of attacks by the Israeli military since October 7 that likely violated international law, grouped by the type of U.S.-supplied weapon involved in the attack.
In order for an attack to be listed below, there must be sufficient evidence that it violated international law. In all of the following cases, it’s at least more likely than not that the attack was a violation. Many of them almost certainly were in breach of international law. This is a very high threshold — as former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane wrote in Foreign Affairs, “The law of war permits vast death and destruction. This is true even under restrictive interpretations of the law.”
Furthermore, in order for an attack to be listed, there must be concrete forensic evidence that a U.S.-supplied weapon was likely used to commit the probable violation of international law. Only the types of weapons the U.S. has reportedly delivered to Israel since October 7 are considered. This report draws from forensic investigations that have been conducted by reputable international organizations, civil society groups, media outlets, and independent analysts.
The following 20 incidents represent a small fraction of potential war crimes committed with U.S.-provided weapons. First, information gathering and fact finding is extremely difficult. Israel restricts U.N. and NGO access to Gaza and doesn’t cooperate with investigations into misuse of U.S.-supplied arms. Members of the press are routinely denied access or attacked: Since October 2023, 116 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes or sniper fire in Gaza, representing 86 percent of all those killed worldwide, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Prolonged communication blackouts are commonplace in Gaza.
Second, Israel’s military campaign relies on U.S. weapons, and so U.S. matériel is involved in nearly every facet of Israel’s campaign. For example, Israel uses U.S.-made aircraft like the F-35, F-16, and F-15 to drop U.S.-made bombs, including the MK-84 (2,000 pounds), MK-83 (1,000 pounds), MK-82 (500 pounds), and 250-pound “small diameter” bombs, which can be fitted with U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits.
The vast majority of bombs Israel drops on Gaza are U.S.-made. The U.S. even provides Israel with jet fuel. The U.S. has sent so many arms to Israel since October 7 that the Pentagon has struggled to find sufficient cargo aircraft to deliver the matériel.
Third, Israel’s campaign is historically destructive. In the three weeks after October 7, Israel dropped an average of 6,000 bombs on Gaza per week. By comparison, U.S. and coalition forces dropped on average 488 bombs per week on ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) between August 2014 and March 2019. OIR caused immense civilian harm — particularly in densely-populated areas like Mosul and Raqqa — but the scale of death and destruction doesn’t come close to what Israel has done in Gaza.
A former high-ranking officer in the Israeli military told Haaretz that Israeli forces could have made as much progress as they have so far in Gaza with one-tenth of the destruction. This “unusually wasteful” and “reckless” conduct “reflects an absolute assumption that the U.S. will continue to arm and finance it,” he is quoted as saying.
What’s more, according to reporting, Israel has used an Artificial Intelligence program called “Lavender” to generate an unprecedented number of bombing targets with minimal human oversight. The AI program is coded with instructions that appear inconsistent with international law and is deployed with little to no human oversight.
The Biden administration acknowledges that Israel likely broke human rights law with U.S.-supplied weapons, but claims it doesn’t have enough evidence to link U.S.-supplied weapons to specific violations that would warrant cutting off military aid to Israel. As national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS, “We do not have enough information to reach definitive conclusions about particular incidents or to make legal determinations, but we do have enough information to have concern…Our hearts break about the loss of innocent Palestinian life.”
None of that is believable. As this report demonstrates, there is more than enough available information. If the Biden administration is truly concerned about the loss of innocent Palestinian life in Gaza, it can stop Israel’s atrocities by denying it the tools it needs to commit them.
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 14,100 (as of June 28). The U.S. sent Israel at least 14,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs from early October to late June. Another shipment 1,800 MK-84s is pending: The White House approved their transfer in March, but then paused shipping them in May. The U.S. also delivered 100 2,000-pound BLU-109 bunker-buster bombs between October 7 and December 1.
By mid-December, the Biden administration had already provided Israel with more than 5,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, four times heavier than the largest bombs the U.S. dropped in Syria and Iraq in its war against ISIS. In the first month of its military offensive in Gaza, Israeli forces dropped more than 500 2,000-pound bombs, more than 40 percent of which were dropped in Israeli-designated safe zones. Six weeks into the war, Israel had dropped 2,000-pound bombs in areas to which it had instructed civilians to flee more than 200 times.
Amount delivered since October: At least 2,600 (as of June). More than 2,000 of these “small-diameter” bombs are 250-pound GBU-39 munitions. After Israel received an expedited shipment of 1,000 Boeing-made GBU-39s in early October, the Biden administration approved the transfer of more than 1,000 GBU-39 bombs for Israel on April 1, the same day that Israeli forces bombed a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing seven aid workers. It’s likely that far more GBU-39s have been delivered to Israel than the amount listed here.
Purportedly out of concern for Palestinian civilians, the Biden administration is urging the Israeli military to use more 250-pound GBU-39s and fewer less-precise 2,000-pound bombs. The result appears to have been a surge in possible war crimes committed with GBU-39s. The relative size of bombs doesn’t matter much if Israeli forces disregard fundamental rules governing targeting in international law, including distinction, precautions, and proportionality. As retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant Wes Bryant told the New York Times, “While they’re using smaller bombs, they’re still deliberately targeting where they know there are civilians.”
Boeing markets its GBU-39 as a “low collateral damage” precision weapon. Echoing Boeing, White House spokesperson John Kirby said Israel’s use of these 250-pound bombs is “certainly indicative of an effort to be discreet and targeted and precise.” The blast from a GBU-39 bomb can kill or injure people over 1,000 feet away, and shrapnel from the bomb’s steel casing can kill or injure anyone within 570 feet.
(Credit above @AlQastalps)
(Credit above: @trbrtc/Alam Sadeq)
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM)
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 3,000 (as of December 1).
Hellfire missiles
Amount delivered: At least 3,000 (as of June 28)
(Credit above: @Easybakeovensz)
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 13,981. A day after the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the unconditional release of hostages, the White House notified Congress on December 8 that it had approved the sale of 13,981 120mm M830A1 high-explosive tank cartridges to Israel.
The Biden administration invoked an emergency authority to bypass the congressional review period. Because the shells were sourced from U.S. Army inventory, they could be transferred immediately to Israel.
The day before, Reuters, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all published investigations providing evidence that an Israeli tank likely deliberately fired two Israeli-made 120mm shells at a group of journalists in southern Lebanon in October, killing one Reuters journalist and injuring six others. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the incident was an apparent war crime. Israeli tanks have also struck hospitals and humanitarian shelters using 120mm tank rounds. On August 13, the Biden administration notified Congress that it approved a $774 million arms sale to Israel for 32,739 120mm tank cartridges.
Amount delivered: At least 57,000 (as of December 1). This total includes thousands of 155mm rounds originally for Ukraine that the Biden administration diverted to Israel in October. Netanyahu specifically requested 155mm artillery shells from U.S. lawmakers in mid-November.
Around the same time, more than 30 organizations urged the Biden administration to not supply Israel with these munitions because their inaccuracy and 100-300 meter casualty radius make them “inherently indiscriminate” in the Gaza context. “It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which high explosive 155mm artillery shells could be used in Gaza in compliance with [international humanitarian law],” the organizations wrote.
On December 29, the White House notified Congress that it approved the sale of an additional 57,021 155mm shells to Israel. The Biden administration invoked an emergency authority to bypass the congressional review period. Israeli forces will likely fire these rounds from U.S.-made howitzers. The Israeli military announced earlier that month it fired over 100,000 artillery rounds during the first 40 days of its ground invasion of Gaza, adding that artillery plays a “central role” by providing “intense fire cover” for its ground forces.
Amount delivered since October 7: Unknown. The Israeli Ministry of Defense reported on October 19 that U.S. Air Force cargo airplanes delivered the first tranche of U.S.-made David light armored vehicles, part of a $22 million arms deal from April 2023.
The Biden administration recently approved five major arms sales to Israel for F-15 fighter aircraft, tank ammunition, tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, mortar rounds, and related equipment for each. Though technically sales, most if not all of this matériel is paid for by U.S. taxpayers — Israel uses much of the military aid Congress approves for it effectively as a gift card to buy U.S.-made weapons.
The total value of the five weapons sales exceeds $20.3 billion.
More extraordinary than the price tag of these arms deals is that the White House made them public. Prior to last week’s announcements, it had disclosed just two arms sales to Israel. By March, the Biden administration had already greenlit more than 100 separate weapons deals for Israel, or about one every 36 hours, on average. The administration presumably kept the value of each arms deal “under threshold” to avoid having to notify Congress.
From 2017 to 2019, the U.S. had approved thousands of below-threshold arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth a total of $11.2 billion. Exploiting this loophole helped the Trump administration avoid scrutiny of its enabling of a devastating and indiscriminate bombing campaign in Yemen. The Biden administration appears to be following the same playbook for the destruction it is enabling in Gaza.
The White House isn’t shy about publicizing arms transfers to other countries. For example, it has been very transparent about the military aid it sent Ukraine since February 2022. Biden promotes arming Ukraine as industrial policy, marketing the military aid as a boon for domestic manufacturing and jobs. The Pentagon not only itemizes what specific matériel the U.S. sends to Ukraine, but also shows on a map where in the U.S. those weapons and equipment are made.
By contrast, nearly all the publicly available information on U.S. arms transfers to Israel comes from leaks reported by the media. The Biden administration says very little about the weapons it delivers to Israel or how the Israeli military uses them. The following analysis is intended to shed light on both. In doing so, it helps explain why the Biden administration prefers to arm Israel in secret.
What follows is a non-exhaustive list of attacks by the Israeli military since October 7 that likely violated international law, grouped by the type of U.S.-supplied weapon involved in the attack.
In order for an attack to be listed below, there must be sufficient evidence that it violated international law. In all of the following cases, it’s at least more likely than not that the attack was a violation. Many of them almost certainly were in breach of international law. This is a very high threshold — as former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane wrote in Foreign Affairs, “The law of war permits vast death and destruction. This is true even under restrictive interpretations of the law.”
Furthermore, in order for an attack to be listed, there must be concrete forensic evidence that a U.S.-supplied weapon was likely used to commit the probable violation of international law. Only the types of weapons the U.S. has reportedly delivered to Israel since October 7 are considered. This report draws from forensic investigations that have been conducted by reputable international organizations, civil society groups, media outlets, and independent analysts.
The following 20 incidents represent a small fraction of potential war crimes committed with U.S.-provided weapons. First, information gathering and fact finding is extremely difficult. Israel restricts U.N. and NGO access to Gaza and doesn’t cooperate with investigations into misuse of U.S.-supplied arms. Members of the press are routinely denied access or attacked: Since October 2023, 116 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes or sniper fire in Gaza, representing 86 percent of all those killed worldwide, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Prolonged communication blackouts are commonplace in Gaza.
Second, Israel’s military campaign relies on U.S. weapons, and so U.S. matériel is involved in nearly every facet of Israel’s campaign. For example, Israel uses U.S.-made aircraft like the F-35, F-16, and F-15 to drop U.S.-made bombs, including the MK-84 (2,000 pounds), MK-83 (1,000 pounds), MK-82 (500 pounds), and 250-pound “small diameter” bombs, which can be fitted with U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits.
The vast majority of bombs Israel drops on Gaza are U.S.-made. The U.S. even provides Israel with jet fuel. The U.S. has sent so many arms to Israel since October 7 that the Pentagon has struggled to find sufficient cargo aircraft to deliver the matériel.
Third, Israel’s campaign is historically destructive. In the three weeks after October 7, Israel dropped an average of 6,000 bombs on Gaza per week. By comparison, U.S. and coalition forces dropped on average 488 bombs per week on ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) between August 2014 and March 2019. OIR caused immense civilian harm — particularly in densely-populated areas like Mosul and Raqqa — but the scale of death and destruction doesn’t come close to what Israel has done in Gaza.
A former high-ranking officer in the Israeli military told Haaretz that Israeli forces could have made as much progress as they have so far in Gaza with one-tenth of the destruction. This “unusually wasteful” and “reckless” conduct “reflects an absolute assumption that the U.S. will continue to arm and finance it,” he is quoted as saying.
What’s more, according to reporting, Israel has used an Artificial Intelligence program called “Lavender” to generate an unprecedented number of bombing targets with minimal human oversight. The AI program is coded with instructions that appear inconsistent with international law and is deployed with little to no human oversight.
The Biden administration acknowledges that Israel likely broke human rights law with U.S.-supplied weapons, but claims it doesn’t have enough evidence to link U.S.-supplied weapons to specific violations that would warrant cutting off military aid to Israel. As national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS, “We do not have enough information to reach definitive conclusions about particular incidents or to make legal determinations, but we do have enough information to have concern…Our hearts break about the loss of innocent Palestinian life.”
None of that is believable. As this report demonstrates, there is more than enough available information. If the Biden administration is truly concerned about the loss of innocent Palestinian life in Gaza, it can stop Israel’s atrocities by denying it the tools it needs to commit them.
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 14,100 (as of June 28). The U.S. sent Israel at least 14,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs from early October to late June. Another shipment 1,800 MK-84s is pending: The White House approved their transfer in March, but then paused shipping them in May. The U.S. also delivered 100 2,000-pound BLU-109 bunker-buster bombs between October 7 and December 1.
By mid-December, the Biden administration had already provided Israel with more than 5,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, four times heavier than the largest bombs the U.S. dropped in Syria and Iraq in its war against ISIS. In the first month of its military offensive in Gaza, Israeli forces dropped more than 500 2,000-pound bombs, more than 40 percent of which were dropped in Israeli-designated safe zones. Six weeks into the war, Israel had dropped 2,000-pound bombs in areas to which it had instructed civilians to flee more than 200 times.
Amount delivered since October: At least 2,600 (as of June). More than 2,000 of these “small-diameter” bombs are 250-pound GBU-39 munitions. After Israel received an expedited shipment of 1,000 Boeing-made GBU-39s in early October, the Biden administration approved the transfer of more than 1,000 GBU-39 bombs for Israel on April 1, the same day that Israeli forces bombed a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing seven aid workers. It’s likely that far more GBU-39s have been delivered to Israel than the amount listed here.
Purportedly out of concern for Palestinian civilians, the Biden administration is urging the Israeli military to use more 250-pound GBU-39s and fewer less-precise 2,000-pound bombs. The result appears to have been a surge in possible war crimes committed with GBU-39s. The relative size of bombs doesn’t matter much if Israeli forces disregard fundamental rules governing targeting in international law, including distinction, precautions, and proportionality. As retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant Wes Bryant told the New York Times, “While they’re using smaller bombs, they’re still deliberately targeting where they know there are civilians.”
Boeing markets its GBU-39 as a “low collateral damage” precision weapon. Echoing Boeing, White House spokesperson John Kirby said Israel’s use of these 250-pound bombs is “certainly indicative of an effort to be discreet and targeted and precise.” The blast from a GBU-39 bomb can kill or injure people over 1,000 feet away, and shrapnel from the bomb’s steel casing can kill or injure anyone within 570 feet.
(Credit above @AlQastalps)
(Credit above: @trbrtc/Alam Sadeq)
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM)
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 3,000 (as of December 1).
Hellfire missiles
Amount delivered: At least 3,000 (as of June 28)
(Credit above: @Easybakeovensz)
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 13,981. A day after the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the unconditional release of hostages, the White House notified Congress on December 8 that it had approved the sale of 13,981 120mm M830A1 high-explosive tank cartridges to Israel.
The Biden administration invoked an emergency authority to bypass the congressional review period. Because the shells were sourced from U.S. Army inventory, they could be transferred immediately to Israel.
The day before, Reuters, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all published investigations providing evidence that an Israeli tank likely deliberately fired two Israeli-made 120mm shells at a group of journalists in southern Lebanon in October, killing one Reuters journalist and injuring six others. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the incident was an apparent war crime. Israeli tanks have also struck hospitals and humanitarian shelters using 120mm tank rounds. On August 13, the Biden administration notified Congress that it approved a $774 million arms sale to Israel for 32,739 120mm tank cartridges.
Amount delivered: At least 57,000 (as of December 1). This total includes thousands of 155mm rounds originally for Ukraine that the Biden administration diverted to Israel in October. Netanyahu specifically requested 155mm artillery shells from U.S. lawmakers in mid-November.
Around the same time, more than 30 organizations urged the Biden administration to not supply Israel with these munitions because their inaccuracy and 100-300 meter casualty radius make them “inherently indiscriminate” in the Gaza context. “It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which high explosive 155mm artillery shells could be used in Gaza in compliance with [international humanitarian law],” the organizations wrote.
On December 29, the White House notified Congress that it approved the sale of an additional 57,021 155mm shells to Israel. The Biden administration invoked an emergency authority to bypass the congressional review period. Israeli forces will likely fire these rounds from U.S.-made howitzers. The Israeli military announced earlier that month it fired over 100,000 artillery rounds during the first 40 days of its ground invasion of Gaza, adding that artillery plays a “central role” by providing “intense fire cover” for its ground forces.
Amount delivered since October 7: Unknown. The Israeli Ministry of Defense reported on October 19 that U.S. Air Force cargo airplanes delivered the first tranche of U.S.-made David light armored vehicles, part of a $22 million arms deal from April 2023.
The Biden administration recently approved five major arms sales to Israel for F-15 fighter aircraft, tank ammunition, tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, mortar rounds, and related equipment for each. Though technically sales, most if not all of this matériel is paid for by U.S. taxpayers — Israel uses much of the military aid Congress approves for it effectively as a gift card to buy U.S.-made weapons.
The total value of the five weapons sales exceeds $20.3 billion.
More extraordinary than the price tag of these arms deals is that the White House made them public. Prior to last week’s announcements, it had disclosed just two arms sales to Israel. By March, the Biden administration had already greenlit more than 100 separate weapons deals for Israel, or about one every 36 hours, on average. The administration presumably kept the value of each arms deal “under threshold” to avoid having to notify Congress.
From 2017 to 2019, the U.S. had approved thousands of below-threshold arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth a total of $11.2 billion. Exploiting this loophole helped the Trump administration avoid scrutiny of its enabling of a devastating and indiscriminate bombing campaign in Yemen. The Biden administration appears to be following the same playbook for the destruction it is enabling in Gaza.
The White House isn’t shy about publicizing arms transfers to other countries. For example, it has been very transparent about the military aid it sent Ukraine since February 2022. Biden promotes arming Ukraine as industrial policy, marketing the military aid as a boon for domestic manufacturing and jobs. The Pentagon not only itemizes what specific matériel the U.S. sends to Ukraine, but also shows on a map where in the U.S. those weapons and equipment are made.
By contrast, nearly all the publicly available information on U.S. arms transfers to Israel comes from leaks reported by the media. The Biden administration says very little about the weapons it delivers to Israel or how the Israeli military uses them. The following analysis is intended to shed light on both. In doing so, it helps explain why the Biden administration prefers to arm Israel in secret.
What follows is a non-exhaustive list of attacks by the Israeli military since October 7 that likely violated international law, grouped by the type of U.S.-supplied weapon involved in the attack.
In order for an attack to be listed below, there must be sufficient evidence that it violated international law. In all of the following cases, it’s at least more likely than not that the attack was a violation. Many of them almost certainly were in breach of international law. This is a very high threshold — as former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane wrote in Foreign Affairs, “The law of war permits vast death and destruction. This is true even under restrictive interpretations of the law.”
Furthermore, in order for an attack to be listed, there must be concrete forensic evidence that a U.S.-supplied weapon was likely used to commit the probable violation of international law. Only the types of weapons the U.S. has reportedly delivered to Israel since October 7 are considered. This report draws from forensic investigations that have been conducted by reputable international organizations, civil society groups, media outlets, and independent analysts.
The following 20 incidents represent a small fraction of potential war crimes committed with U.S.-provided weapons. First, information gathering and fact finding is extremely difficult. Israel restricts U.N. and NGO access to Gaza and doesn’t cooperate with investigations into misuse of U.S.-supplied arms. Members of the press are routinely denied access or attacked: Since October 2023, 116 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes or sniper fire in Gaza, representing 86 percent of all those killed worldwide, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists. Prolonged communication blackouts are commonplace in Gaza.
Second, Israel’s military campaign relies on U.S. weapons, and so U.S. matériel is involved in nearly every facet of Israel’s campaign. For example, Israel uses U.S.-made aircraft like the F-35, F-16, and F-15 to drop U.S.-made bombs, including the MK-84 (2,000 pounds), MK-83 (1,000 pounds), MK-82 (500 pounds), and 250-pound “small diameter” bombs, which can be fitted with U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits.
The vast majority of bombs Israel drops on Gaza are U.S.-made. The U.S. even provides Israel with jet fuel. The U.S. has sent so many arms to Israel since October 7 that the Pentagon has struggled to find sufficient cargo aircraft to deliver the matériel.
Third, Israel’s campaign is historically destructive. In the three weeks after October 7, Israel dropped an average of 6,000 bombs on Gaza per week. By comparison, U.S. and coalition forces dropped on average 488 bombs per week on ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) between August 2014 and March 2019. OIR caused immense civilian harm — particularly in densely-populated areas like Mosul and Raqqa — but the scale of death and destruction doesn’t come close to what Israel has done in Gaza.
A former high-ranking officer in the Israeli military told Haaretz that Israeli forces could have made as much progress as they have so far in Gaza with one-tenth of the destruction. This “unusually wasteful” and “reckless” conduct “reflects an absolute assumption that the U.S. will continue to arm and finance it,” he is quoted as saying.
What’s more, according to reporting, Israel has used an Artificial Intelligence program called “Lavender” to generate an unprecedented number of bombing targets with minimal human oversight. The AI program is coded with instructions that appear inconsistent with international law and is deployed with little to no human oversight.
The Biden administration acknowledges that Israel likely broke human rights law with U.S.-supplied weapons, but claims it doesn’t have enough evidence to link U.S.-supplied weapons to specific violations that would warrant cutting off military aid to Israel. As national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS, “We do not have enough information to reach definitive conclusions about particular incidents or to make legal determinations, but we do have enough information to have concern…Our hearts break about the loss of innocent Palestinian life.”
None of that is believable. As this report demonstrates, there is more than enough available information. If the Biden administration is truly concerned about the loss of innocent Palestinian life in Gaza, it can stop Israel’s atrocities by denying it the tools it needs to commit them.
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 14,100 (as of June 28). The U.S. sent Israel at least 14,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs from early October to late June. Another shipment 1,800 MK-84s is pending: The White House approved their transfer in March, but then paused shipping them in May. The U.S. also delivered 100 2,000-pound BLU-109 bunker-buster bombs between October 7 and December 1.
By mid-December, the Biden administration had already provided Israel with more than 5,000 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, four times heavier than the largest bombs the U.S. dropped in Syria and Iraq in its war against ISIS. In the first month of its military offensive in Gaza, Israeli forces dropped more than 500 2,000-pound bombs, more than 40 percent of which were dropped in Israeli-designated safe zones. Six weeks into the war, Israel had dropped 2,000-pound bombs in areas to which it had instructed civilians to flee more than 200 times.
Amount delivered since October: At least 2,600 (as of June). More than 2,000 of these “small-diameter” bombs are 250-pound GBU-39 munitions. After Israel received an expedited shipment of 1,000 Boeing-made GBU-39s in early October, the Biden administration approved the transfer of more than 1,000 GBU-39 bombs for Israel on April 1, the same day that Israeli forces bombed a World Central Kitchen convoy, killing seven aid workers. It’s likely that far more GBU-39s have been delivered to Israel than the amount listed here.
Purportedly out of concern for Palestinian civilians, the Biden administration is urging the Israeli military to use more 250-pound GBU-39s and fewer less-precise 2,000-pound bombs. The result appears to have been a surge in possible war crimes committed with GBU-39s. The relative size of bombs doesn’t matter much if Israeli forces disregard fundamental rules governing targeting in international law, including distinction, precautions, and proportionality. As retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant Wes Bryant told the New York Times, “While they’re using smaller bombs, they’re still deliberately targeting where they know there are civilians.”
Boeing markets its GBU-39 as a “low collateral damage” precision weapon. Echoing Boeing, White House spokesperson John Kirby said Israel’s use of these 250-pound bombs is “certainly indicative of an effort to be discreet and targeted and precise.” The blast from a GBU-39 bomb can kill or injure people over 1,000 feet away, and shrapnel from the bomb’s steel casing can kill or injure anyone within 570 feet.
(Credit above @AlQastalps)
(Credit above: @trbrtc/Alam Sadeq)
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM)
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 3,000 (as of December 1).
Hellfire missiles
Amount delivered: At least 3,000 (as of June 28)
(Credit above: @Easybakeovensz)
Amount delivered since October 7: At least 13,981. A day after the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the unconditional release of hostages, the White House notified Congress on December 8 that it had approved the sale of 13,981 120mm M830A1 high-explosive tank cartridges to Israel.
The Biden administration invoked an emergency authority to bypass the congressional review period. Because the shells were sourced from U.S. Army inventory, they could be transferred immediately to Israel.
The day before, Reuters, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all published investigations providing evidence that an Israeli tank likely deliberately fired two Israeli-made 120mm shells at a group of journalists in southern Lebanon in October, killing one Reuters journalist and injuring six others. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the incident was an apparent war crime. Israeli tanks have also struck hospitals and humanitarian shelters using 120mm tank rounds. On August 13, the Biden administration notified Congress that it approved a $774 million arms sale to Israel for 32,739 120mm tank cartridges.
Amount delivered: At least 57,000 (as of December 1). This total includes thousands of 155mm rounds originally for Ukraine that the Biden administration diverted to Israel in October. Netanyahu specifically requested 155mm artillery shells from U.S. lawmakers in mid-November.
Around the same time, more than 30 organizations urged the Biden administration to not supply Israel with these munitions because their inaccuracy and 100-300 meter casualty radius make them “inherently indiscriminate” in the Gaza context. “It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which high explosive 155mm artillery shells could be used in Gaza in compliance with [international humanitarian law],” the organizations wrote.
On December 29, the White House notified Congress that it approved the sale of an additional 57,021 155mm shells to Israel. The Biden administration invoked an emergency authority to bypass the congressional review period. Israeli forces will likely fire these rounds from U.S.-made howitzers. The Israeli military announced earlier that month it fired over 100,000 artillery rounds during the first 40 days of its ground invasion of Gaza, adding that artillery plays a “central role” by providing “intense fire cover” for its ground forces.
Amount delivered since October 7: Unknown. The Israeli Ministry of Defense reported on October 19 that U.S. Air Force cargo airplanes delivered the first tranche of U.S.-made David light armored vehicles, part of a $22 million arms deal from April 2023.
