US plans to supply Israel with fighter jets and ammunition – 2024-04-04 04:05:55

The US government is considering selling Israel 50 new F-15 fighter jets, advanced AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles, and ammunition packages.

As Day.Az reports with reference to Interfax, The Hill reported this.

A spokesperson for the House Foreign Affairs Committee confirmed to The Hill that the administration has informally notified the relevant congressional panels about the sale, and committee Chairman Michael McCaul has already “approved the deal to formally notify Congress.”

CNN reported, citing sources, that the administration is close to approving the sale of 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel, the deal is valued at $18 billion.

At the same time, unlike ammunition, the new F-15s will have to be created from scratch. The American official said that there are no plans to speed up deliveries of the aircraft to Israel, so if approved, it would not take five years for deliveries.

According to the channel’s sources, last week the US administration secretly authorized the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Israel. This did not require notification to Congress, since it was notified of the proposed sale back in 2008.

The network reports that there is also growing concern among congressional Democrats about President Joe Biden’s administration’s ongoing practice of sharing intelligence with Israel, which was expanded on the president’s orders following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said in November that the US military “is not involved in developing targets for the Israel Defense Forces” and that its involvement is solely to help find the hostages.

At the same time, some of this intelligence could also be used to identify targets, sources told CNN.

The American media, commenting on possible arms deliveries, note that discussions around them are taking place against the backdrop of growing calls for Biden to refrain from supplying arms to Israel if he does not take action to limit civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip.

They note that lawmakers, “including from Biden’s own party,” believe the president should refuse to supply weapons to Israel if it launches a large-scale invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. More than 1 million Palestinian civilians are taking refuge there after being forced to flee the northern regions of the country due to fighting.

During a meeting of the strategic advisory group with Israeli counterparts that took place the day before, the United States informed that it was concerned about the possible consequences of Israel’s actions in Rafah, the Israelis said that they would take this into account, the White House said.

Subscribe to our WhatsApp channel and stay up to date with the main news!