Trump administration plans $2.8bn sale of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel

The Trump administration is preparing to notify Congress of a $2.8bn arms package that would supply Israel with 907kg (2,000-pound) bombs, US and international news outlets reported. Funded through the State Departments Foreign Military Financing program, the proposed deal would include 40,000 bombs: 20,000 MK-84 general-purpose bombs and 20,000 BLU-117s, a thermally coated variant intended for safer naval storage, together with I-2000 penetrator warheads built to attack hardened or underground targets. Critics have raised immediate concerns about the humanitarian impact of expanding deliveries of heavy munitions that have been used repeatedly in Gaza and Lebanon. Human rights groups and some US lawmakers say Israel has deployed 907kg bombs in areas it had labeled safe for civilians, drawing condemnation over civilian casualties. The Washington Post and AFP reported the sale as the largest single transfer of that particular munition in recent years. The package has already prompted political pushback in Washington. Senator Chris Van Hollen said he would try to block the transfer, accusing the administration of sending US-funded weapons to a government he described as led by a wanted war criminal. Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, citing an unnamed federal official on social media, described the MK-84 as highly destructive; other Republican and Democratic voices, including former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, also criticized the move. Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group said the sale could be interpreted as a vote of confidence in Israel at a time when the administration says it seeks to calm regional tensions. The reports said the Biden administration paused a single shipment of these bombs in 2024 over concerns about civilian casualties — characterized in one report as the only munition withheld during what it described as the Gaza genocide — but the pause was reversed by Trump in his first month back in office. The informal notification of the current deal has been sent to congressional committees; US officials told reporters that foreign arms sales proceed through established review processes, and the State Department declined to comment on proposed sales before formal congressional notification.