Trump releases 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, put on hold by Biden
text_fieldsWashington: US President Donald Trump unblocks the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, which was kept in hold by his predecissoor and Democrat Joe Biden. Thus, Trump released the pressure point that had been meant to reduce civilian casualties during the US ally's war with Hamas in Gaza, though a ceasefire has been reached in the warn-ton enclave.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on Saturday, "A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are now on their way!"
A Trump administration official confirmed that he was referring to the heavy bombs. The official was not authorized to give that detail publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, The Associated Press reported.
Then-President Joe Biden halted the delivery of the large bombs in May as part of an effort to keep Israel from launching an all-out assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. A month later, Israel did take control of the city, but after the vast majority of the 1 million civilians that had been living or sheltering in Rafah had fled.
"Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres," Biden told CNN in May when he held up the weapons. "I made it clear that if they go into Rafah ... I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem." The Biden pause had also held up 1,700 500-pound bombs that had been packaged in the same shipment to Israel, but weeks later, those bombs were delivered.
Trump's action, five days into his term, comes as he has celebrated the first phase of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that has paused the fighting and seen the release of some hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.