U.S. Will Allow Delivery of 500-Pound Bombs to Israel, an Official Says

[Pelican Press 0]

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U.S. Will Allow Delivery of 500-Pound ****** to *******, an Official Says

The ******* States plans to authorize part of a weapons shipment to ******* that it had withheld in the spring over concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

The official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that the ******* States would send 1,700 500-pound ****** that had been held up because they were part of a shipment that had also included 1,800 2,000-pound ******, which the country has chosen not to ship to *******.

President Biden halted the shipment in the spring to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in *******’s ******** on the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza. It was the first time that Mr. Biden tried to influence *******’s approach to the war by using his power to curtail arms.

The ******* States will continue to withhold 2,000-pound ****** out of concerns over the civilian deaths or injuries that they could cause in Gaza, the official said. A New York Times investigation in December found that ********* 2,000-pound ****** were responsible for some of the worst harm to ************ civilians since the war in Gaza began after ****** attacked ******* on Oct. 7.

The news that some of the shipment would be released was earlier

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*******’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, alluded to the U.S. decision on the ****** on Thursday in a statement from his office that summed up a meeting with Brett McGurk, the top White House official for Middle East affairs. During their meeting on Wednesday in Tel Aviv, Mr. McGurk updated Mr. Gallant “regarding the delivery of critical munition, some of which will be sent to ******* in the coming days,” the statement said.

When Mr. Biden held up the shipment, he had been under pressure to limit or halt all arms shipments to *******, something he had refused to do because of his strong support for the effort to ******** ******.

In the first two weeks of the war, roughly 90 percent of the munitions ******* dropped in Gaza were satellite-guided ****** of 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, according to a senior U.S. military official. The rest were 250-pound

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Analysts note that while smaller ****** have less explosive power than the 2,000-pound ******, they can still cause significant injury and ******, especially in areas with little protection, like tent camps.

The 250-pound GBU-39, which is also *********-made, has increasingly become the ******* of choice for the ******** military. Two of them were used in a deadly strike on a tent camp in Rafah on May 26 that Gazan health authorities reported ******* 45 people.

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#U.S #Delivery #500Pound #****** #******* #Official

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