WH tells Pentagon to lift hold on 2,000-pound bombs to 'Israel': Axios
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An Israeli official stated that the Pentagon informed the Israeli government on Friday about the decision to release the munitions.
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President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, at the White House in Washington. (AP)
The Trump administration directed the Pentagon to lift the hold imposed by the Biden administration on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to "Israel", Axios reported on Saturday, citing three Israeli officials.
Former US President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend the delivery of a shipment of these bombs last May sparked one of the most significant crises in relations between "Israel" and its biggest ally during the 15-month Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli official stated that the Pentagon informed the Israeli government on Friday about the decision to release the munitions.
The three Israeli officials reported that 1,800 MK-84 bombs, which had been stored in the US, are now set to be shipped to "Israel" in the coming days.
The Biden administration had initially expressed concerns that deploying the 2,000-pound bombs in Gaza’s densely populated areas could result in substantial civilian casualties. However, Netanyahu and his allies in both "Israel" and the US used Biden’s decision to falsely suggest the existence of a US "arms embargo" on the occupation entity.
Outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the US, Mike Herzog, told Axios last week that Trump was expected to authorize the release of the bombs.
"We believe that Trump is going to release, at the beginning of his term, the munitions that haven't been released until now by the Biden administration," Herzog said during an interview last Friday.
Experts say 'Israel' likely used 2,000-pound US bombs in Mawasi strike
It is noteworthy that in September, two weapons specialists revealed that the visual evidence from the al-Mawasi massacre in Gaza indicated that the Israeli occupation may have utilized 2,000-pound bombs in the aggression.
According to Trevor Ball of CNN, the pieces discovered at the location appear to be sections of the tip and tail of a Spice 2000 bomb guidance kit's thermal battery component.
Ball, a veteran US Army explosive ordnance disposal expert, added that the crater and weapon fragments were compatible with the deployment of numerous MK 84 2,000-pound bombs with 900 pounds of high explosives each.
Patrick Senft, a research coordinator at Armament Research Services (ARES), told CNN that evidence at the location shows that 2,000-pound bombs were deployed.
Senft explained that the damage and size of craters are in line with the effects of "aerial bombs weighing several hundred kilograms. One fragment is visually consistent with the tail section of a SPICE 2000 guidance kit, suggesting that at least one 2,000-pound bomb was employed.”
He explained that “the SPICE 2000 kit can be attached to a variety of 2,000-pound unguided aerial bombs, turning them into highly precise munitions."
Ex-State Dept. officials confirm US bombs used against Gaza children
US government officials who resigned in protest over Washington's involvement in the Israeli war on Gaza have confirmed the US complicity in the Israeli actions against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, describing it as genocide.
In an interview for CBS' 60 Minutes, the officials emphasized that "Israel" could not have carried out war crimes in Gaza without military support from the United States.
"What is happening in Gaza would not be able to happen without US arms. That’s without a doubt," said Hala Rharrit, a former diplomat working on human rights.
"I would show the complicity that was indisputable; fragments of US bombs next to massacres of mostly children. And that’s the devastation. It’s been overwhelmingly children."
Rharrit stated that she was instructed not to report on the documented images emerging from Gaza that depict Israeli crimes.
She said, "I would show images of children that were starved to death. In one incident, I was basically berated," adding, "Don’t put that image in there. We don’t want to see it. We don’t want to see that the children are starving to death."
Rharrit added that after three months of the Gaza war, she was told her reports were no longer required.
A former senior US State Department staffer, Josh Paul, also stressed, "There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the US because every single bomb that is dropped is dropped from an American-made plane."
He pointed out that the majority of "Israel's" bombs and technology, as well as all of its fighter jets and fixed-wing fleets, are supplied by the United States.
Read more: Early concerns over US complicity, Israeli war crimes in Gaza unveiled
