Nuvpreet Kalra
Without US weapons and support, Israel could not be entering the 15th month of its systematic destruction and extermination of Palestine - an act that can only be described as a holocaust.
On January 4, the Biden administration notified Congress of a $8 billion weapons transfer to Israel. This announcement came in the 72-hour period where Israel killed more than 200 Palestinians with more than 100 strikes across Gaza.
In his last two weeks in office, Genocide Joe is providing Israel with more weapons to commit its genocide in Palestine, attack Lebanon despite the ceasefire, strike Yemen, bombard and steal land in Syria, all while preparing to attack Iran.
What’s in the transfer?
The $8bn weapons deal includes a huge number of weapons. While the details of the quantities and full arsenal included will become apparent in the coming weeks, Biden’s notification to Congress outlines some of the major weapons:
Attack helicopters
Presumably, the Apache helicopters were made by American company Boeing.
The IOF have used these helicopters to fire missiles at displaced people in tents in Gaza, Lebanon, and the occupied West Bank. In June 2023, Israel fired on people in the Jenin refugee camp for the first time since 2002.
Hellfire AGM-114 Missiles
Made by American companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
These 100-pound missiles are precisely targeted and mainly launched from Boeing’s Apache helicopters. The IOF used these missiles to bomb the Nuseirat refugee camp on June 8, 2024, which killed more than 300 Palestinians and injured almost 1000 more.
500-pound bombs
Presumably, General Dynamics’ Mark-82 bombs and Boeing’s GBU-38 JDAM-equipped bombs.
These bombs kill or severely harm anyone within 65ft. In May 2024, the US paused one shipment of 500-pound bombs over feigned concern about their use in Rafah, where one million people were sheltering after being forced there by the IOF. However, this delay lasted just over a month as the US ultimately sent the shipment in July. The IOF has frequently used these bombs for its genocidal attacks on hospitals, schools, displaced people in tents, and other parts of Gaza. The US has given Israel more than 6,500 500lb bombs between October 2023 - June 2024.
155m artillery shells
These artillery shells fire lethal sharp metal fragments within 300 meters. Israel used these shells to bomb Al-Shifa Hospital in November 2023, which they lied and said was a Hamas misfire.
Medium-range missiles
Presumably, these are Raytheon’s AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. These are used in Boeing’s F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, which Israel has used to terrorize Gaza.
Previous weapons transfers
The US has been supplying Israel with weapons since the violent founding of the settler state, and it is only increasing the number of arms it is sending. Some of these weapons will reach Israel quickly after the deal is approved, while others will be delivered in the next few years. Netanyahu has already made it clear that Israel will not stop the genocide even with a hostage deal. The US weapons will be delivered for over a decade. Israel has both the willingness and the weapons to continue this genocide.
This new round of weapons transfer comes after over a year of escalating weapons sales from the Biden administration. It is somewhat difficult to trace the exact number of weapons the US has sent to Israel, given that the president need only alert Congress when weapons transfers exceed a certain threshold. In the four months after October 7, the US sent more than 100 separate weapons transfers to Israel - bypassing Congress. The number as of January 2025 is likely well over 500. Previously, only two of these Congress-bypassed transfers were made public: two rounds of ‘emergency’ weapons totaling $253.5 million in December 2023.
On the public record, we know that the US has sent Israel a conservative estimate of $22.76 billion in weapons from October 2023 to October 2024. In this, the Pentagon has spent $4.86 billion on US military attacks in support of Israel’s genocide, particularly in attacks against Yemeni forces. This is already an excruciatingly large sum of money that is facilitating massacres every single day. However, it does not include the $20 billion approved by Congress in August 2024, the additional $680 million sent in November, or the recent $8 billion figure that is also likely to pass. If this new transfer does pass (which it most likely will), the US will have spent an estimated $51.44 billion on weapons and support for Israel’s genocide since October 2023. This is why we refer to the violence as a US-Israeli holocaust. Without US weapons and support, Israel could not be entering the 15th month of its systematic destruction and extermination of Palestine - an act that can only be described as a holocaust.
When we turn on our phones, we see entire families killed by Israeli strikes, infants freezing to death, and people pleading for funds to help them buy the essentials for life. American imperialist violence is continuing to destroy lives in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria while extracting more and more from working people in the US. So when we see our government flippantly pump another $8 billion into the zionist war machine, we should be outraged. But we should recognize that our outrage means we have seen through the lies and propaganda to justify imperialist violence. Our outrage is powerful. Israel is the most isolated it has ever been; there are more people in the movement for Palestine than ever before, and the project of normalization is starting to unwind. We know the colonizers are losing because they have increased their propaganda funding 20-fold!
Let’s be outraged. But let’s channel this outrage into action. This seemingly endless cycle of death and destruction must end - and the only way it can happen is for the United States to stop arming Israel immediately.
Nuvpreet Kalra is CODEPINK’s Digital Content Producer. Nuvpreet completed a Bachelor’s in Politics & Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and an MA in Internet Equalities at the University of the Arts London. As a student, she was part of movements to divest and decolonize, as well as anti-racist and anti-imperialist groups. Nuvpreet joined CODEPINK as an intern in 2023, and now produces digital and social media content. In England, she organizes with groups for Palestinian liberation, abolition and anti-imperialism.
