Maariv: The Biden administration sets a strict condition before agreeing to supply Israel with precision munitions
The Israeli Maariv newspaper revealed that the United States has placed a condition on Israel in exchange for agreeing to supply it with precision-guided munitions, which represents a new American pressure card on its most important ally in the Middle East.
Maariv said that the United States plans to deliver a huge arms shipment to Israel, including bombs and detonators, but stipulates freezing the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
According to Israeli officials’ statements to Maariv newspaper, this condition was behind the non-approval of any plan to build new settlements in the last 6 months, in the “E1” area located between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the sources, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials believed that the lack of approval for the construction of settlements was due to preoccupation with the war, but it later became clear that freezing construction in the West Bank was an American condition for continuing to supply Israel with ammunition.
As for the recently announced deal to supply arms from the United States to Israel, it’s still in the process of internal review, and its details may change before its finally approved by the congressional committees.
Maariv said that the planned weapons shipment includes approximately a thousand MK-82 bombs, precision-guided ammunition, and bomb fuses, noting that the precision-guided weapons will allow Israel to better target Hamas leaders and attack areas where the movement’s militants are holed up in tunnels in Gaza.
Finally, security sources told Maariv that the shipment will be financed from US military aid allocations to Israel.
