WASHINGTON, 18 Sept. - (ANA) - The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful 2,000-pound bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that prompted such concerns over mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration temporarily paused their delivery two years ago.

 

The $2.8 billion package includes 40,000 of the bombs, made up of 20,000 Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.

 

Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of which is to be paid for with foreign military financing—in which US taxpayer dollars are given to Israel to turn around and buy the weapons from the United States.

 

The proposed sale is just the latest in a series of Trump administration steps to improve Israeli’s military capacity. The Israel's genocide of Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and has decimated the enclave.

 

The package, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, comes as Israel has faced increasing international isolation over its genocide.

 

The sale signals that some strains in the relationship between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since the two countries launched the war against Iran in February, are not impeding the closeness of the US-Israeli alliance. Trump has had a hot-and-cold history with Netanyahu over the years and expressed some frustration with Netanyahu tied to the Iran conflict before their latest meeting in July at the White House.

 

In 2024, the Biden administration held off on one shipment of the bombs, but Trump lifted that hold when he took office again.

 

Last year, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review process and approved a nearly $3 billion sale to Israel that included more than 35,500 of the bombs. The administration then approved a new series of arms sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion in January.

 

The 2,000-pound bombs have multiple variants, with some designed to penetrate deep, underground targets while others detonate above ground and cause widespread damage.

 

Though the Israeli military has offered few details about what bombs and artillery it has used in Gaza, experts analyzing strike footage and blast fragments found on-site believe the US-made bombs have been used there, killing several people in densely populated areas.

 

While the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided since the fragile ceasefire took hold in October, Israel has continued to carry out strikes in the territory, including some overnight and into Tuesday that killed several people. That is even after Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a key Mideast negotiator, met with Netanyahu last month in an effort to push the ceasefire deal forward and asked Israel to reduce its attacks.

 

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire.

 

AB/ANA/18 September 2026 - -