US approves multi-million dollar sale of munitions to Israel

The Middle Eastern arms race has escalated amid news that the US has skipped a congressional review to supply Israel with munitions to support the war on Iran, according to The New Arab and agencies on March 7th.

An arms deal worth $151.8 million was approved on March 6th, with the State Department saying that Israel has requested 12,000 BLU-110A/B general-purpose, 1,000-pound bomb bodies; the primary contractor will be the Texas-based Repkon USA.

By law, a congressional review must be submitted for any major arms sale; senators voting against the sale can block the deal from proceeding further.

Democrats have criticised Donald Trump’s administration’s flouting of rules, with Gregory Meeks saying the “administration has repeatedly insisted it was fully prepared for this war.”

“Rushing to invoke emergency authority to circumvent Congress tells a different story. This is an emergency of the Trump administration’s own creation.”

Meeks had previously criticised US arms sales to Israel in April 2024 amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Reports from late 2025 estimate that the genocide has killed over 71,000 people since 2023, with Israel repeatedly violating the US-backed ceasefire by continuing to bombard Gaza and refusing to withdraw its military from the Palestinian enclave.

The administration previously waived the congressional review requirement in March 2025, approving a $3 billion arms sale to Israel, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified by claiming an “emergency exists.”

In May 2024, the Biden Administration paused an arms shipment over Israel’s Rafah offensive, where Israel took control of the Rafah Crossing and launched assaults on the region.

News of this latest arms sale comes after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth expressed US support for Israel’s war on Iran during a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, on March 5th.

This is despite Katz advocating for Jewish settlers to establish settlement outposts in Gaza and for Israel to continue occupying the enclave, in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Despite concerns over the potential complicity of defence contractors in war crimes, the US is Israel’s largest arms supplier, supplying Israel with around 53% of its conventional arms.

In December 2025, the Pentagon announced an $8.6 billion contract to supply F-15 fighter jets to the Israeli Air Force.

The US-Israeli military alliance is long-standing, with US policy historically restricting the sale of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets in the Middle East to Israel.

However, the US is not the only country to have defence agreements with Israel; Morocco, India and Germany have also discussed such partnerships.

The New Arab and agencies, Maghrebi.org