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 about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.
Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of which is to be paid for with foreign military financing — in which U.S. 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 conflict in Gaza has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and has decimated the enclave. The U.S. brokered a fragile ceasefire, but violence has continued. Trump lifted that hold when he took office again.
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 U.S. officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke on Tuesday (September 15, 2026) on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final. In 2024, the Biden administration held off on one shipment of the bombs, but Mr. Last year, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional review process and approved a nearly USD 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 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023 killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s offensive in Gaza to retaliate has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
