The shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs has arrived in Israel after being authorized by US President Donald Trump, following a pause imposed by his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, due to concerns over the genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s Defence Ministry said the shipment of MK-84 heavy munitions, which are 2,000-pound (900kg) aircraft bombs, was carried to air bases by trucks after arriving in Israel’s Ashdod Port overnight.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said the shipment of MK-84 munitions “represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States,” in a statement from his ministry. Katz thanked Trump and the US administration for their “unwavering support.”
The US sending the heavy bombs to Israel coincided with a trip of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is visiting Israel in his first official trip to the region since assuming the role.
Trump’s administration’s release of the heavy bomb shipments last month rolled back one of the few Biden-era policies meant to exert leverage on Israel during its assault in Gaza. Biden had restricted the delivery of the 2,000-pound bombs out of concern they could be used indiscriminately by Israel’s military in densely populated areas of Gaza.
Despite causing tensions between Biden and Netanyahu, the move did not portend any major changes in the assault.
The Biden administration has set a record by spending at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel in the year following October 7, 2023, according to a recent report by Brown University’s Costs of War project.
Fragile Ceasefire
The head of Gaza’s Government Media Office Salama Maroof criticized the US decision to send the heavy bombs.
“Instead of sending food, medicine, water, or shelter and building materials to the victims in the Gaza Strip, even with a humanitarian motive, the United States of America, the first democracy in the world and a pioneer of human rights, as it describes itself, supports the criminal occupation army with 1,800 heavy MK bombs,” Maroof said.
The shipment arrived amid concerns about whether a fragile ceasefire in Gaza agreed last month would hold.
Hamas said Thursday it is committed to the release of Israeli captives and upholding the ceasefire agreement, just days after the Palestinian resistance group announced it would delay the release of the three captives scheduled for Saturday due to Israeli ceasefire violations, including shooting Palestinians in Gaza and not allowing the agreed-upon number of tents, shelters, and other vital aid to enter the besieged enclave.
Israel responded by saying that if Hamas failed to free captives according to the schedule, it would resume its war.
In a statement, Hamas said it would continue implementing the ceasefire agreement, including the exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian detainees, “according to the specified timetable.”
A Palestinian source quoted by AFP news agency said on Thursday that mediators had obtained from Israel a “promise … to put in place a humanitarian protocol starting from this morning” that would allow construction equipment and temporary housing into the devastated territory.
Mediators also confirmed all parties remain committed to fulfilling the ceasefire terms, including the humanitarian protocol.
Since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19, Israeli forces have killed at least 92 Palestinians and wounded more than 800, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Reports said indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel are expected to start next week on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
On Saturday, Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza handed over three more Israeli captives as part of the sixth prisoner exchange deal under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
The three captives are American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, Russian-Israeli Alexandre Troufanov and Argentinian-Israeli Yair Horn.
In return, the Israeli occupation freed 369 Palestinian detainees, including 36 Palestinians who were serving life sentences and 333 who were abducted in the Gaza Strip during the assault.
Violating Ceasefire
On Sunday, three Palestinian policemen were killed in an Israeli airstrike east of Rafah in southern Gaza, Gaza’s Interior Ministry confirmed, marking another violation of the ceasefire agreement.
The Interior Ministry called on mediators and the international community to compel the occupation to stop targeting the police force, which is a civil apparatus.”
The officers were hit while securing the entry of aid trucks through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing.
The Israeli military claimed it struck ‘several armed individuals’ in southern Gaza after they approached Israeli soldiers.
“Hits were identified,” it said in a statement.
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Hamas issued a statement condemning the “treacherous” drone attack that killed three police officers as “a serious violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
Hamas added that Israel’s refusal to allow the entry of heavy machinery into the strip also breaches the terms of the agreement, saying that Israel’s stalling of the second phase of the talks confirm its lack of commitment to the truce.
