Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that as Israel faces threats on multiple fronts, including from Iran, the United States has demonstrated “unwavering support.”
The package includes, among other things, 4 billion dollars to replenish the The Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems and $1.2 billion to acquire the Iron Beam defense system.
It also includes $9 billion in humanitarian aid, part of which will be allocated to Gaza. However, no aid can flow to the largest humanitarian group serving Gaza, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), whose funding the United States suspended after Israel alleged that a a handful of its employees had participated in the Hamas attacks of October 7. .
The measure received bipartisan support, passing 366-58 in the narrowly GOP-controlled chamber. Twenty-one Republicans and 37 Democrats voted against the bill. More than a dozen of these Democrats said in a statement that, while supporting Israel’s right to self-defense, providing more offensive weapons to Israel “could lead to more killings of civilians” in Gaza. “Most Americans do not want our government to write a blank check to continue Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war in Gaza,” they said.
The Senate is expected to consider the bill this week and Biden is expected to sign it.
Here’s what else to know
At least 14 people were killed in a days-long Israeli army raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp. in the occupied West Bank, including a 15-year-old boy, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced in Ramallah on Saturday. The Israeli army said in a statement it killed 10 militants during the raid on the camp and discovered an “explosives laboratory”. In another incident in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, an ambulance driver was fatally shot near the village of al-Sawiya, south of Nablus, while transporting two people who reportedly shot dead by Israeli settlers.
Thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv called for the resignation of the Israeli government and the release of hostages held by Hamas. They gathered Saturday in the run-up to Passover, the Jewish holiday that begins Monday. A video shown at the protest in Tel Aviv said: “Until they return, it’s not a holiday, and it’s not the Seder. »
At least 34,049 people have been killed and 76,901 injured in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that around 1,200 people were killed in the October 7 Hamas attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 260 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operation in Gaza.
washingtonpost
