Pentagon: Weapons to Israel Have ‘Flowed More Rapidly than Ever’ Since October 7

The Pentagon on Tuesday said U.S. weapons to Israel have “flowed more rapidly than ever” since Hamas conducted its terrorist attack on October 7 and amid calls from Democrats to condition or limit that assistance.

Asked by a reporter during a background briefing whether Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed with his Israeli counterpart at the Pentagon limiting those weapons or conditioning them on efforts to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians, a senior defense official said:

Regarding the question about security assistance, you know, security assistance, which is a longstanding feature of the U.S. Israel relationship and the U.S. Commitment Israel security, it has flowed more rapidly than ever since the attacks of October 7th. And the secretary ensures — said very clearly that we will continue to stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law, and to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself.

The Biden administration is under intense pressure from Democrats to limit the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel, over concerns Israel is being excessive in its reaction to Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas’s October 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 people — many of them women, children, and the elderly.

About 200 were kidnapped, with only about half of them released.

Since Israel launched a counteroffensive, progressives have pushed for a ceasefire, citing Palestinian civilian casualties. President Joe Biden has increasingly ramped up criticism of Israel and on Monday, the Biden administration abstained from a vote at the United Nations Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and for the release of all hostages.

The abstention infuriated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who canceled an Israeli delegation visit to the White House. The trip to the Pentagon by the Israeli defense minister, however, proceeded.

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“The U.S. declining to protect Israel from a resolution it passionately objects to by not providing a veto is an extraordinary thing,” Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told CNBC.

The senior defense official said Austin expressed the U.S. goal to find an “alternative” to a full-scale Israeli military operation into Rafah.

“In Rafah, the secretary expressed our goal to help Israel find an alternative to a full-scale, and perhaps a premature military operation that could endanger the over 1 million civilians that are sheltering in Rafah. And to do that, there’s a requirement to ensure that those civilians can depart, can do so safely and can have their humanitarian needs met as they make their way to other parts of Gaza,” the official said.

The official said Austin also urged the minister to scale up aid entry points into Gaza. He said a temporary pier the U.S. military is building to get more aid into Gaza will be “operational within the coming weeks.”

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The official said there are six ships on their way to the Eastern Mediterranean as part of the effort to build the pier, and will arrive in the “next few weeks.”

“Once it’s constructed, we estimate it will be able to deliver upwards of two million meals a day to the Palestinian people,” the official said.

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