Congress Must Block Trump’s Latest $6.5 Billion Weapons Package to Israel
IMEU Policy Project Memo #21
BACKGROUND
On September 19, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that the Trump administration provided informal notification to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) and the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), known as the “Four Corners”, of impending deliveries of $6.5 billion in additional weapons to Israel.
This weapons package reportedly includes:
$3.8 billion for 30 AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships
$1.9 billion for 3,250 infantry assault vehicles
$750 million for parts for armored personnel carriers and power supplies
These weapons would be provided to Israel at US taxpayer-expense through Foreign Military Financing (FMF).
Since Israel began its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, the Biden and Trump administrations already have delivered more than $30 billion in weapons to Israel, including $12.5 billion in weapons delivered since President Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
💡POLICY ASK: The “Four Corners” should place holds on these informal notifications. Should the Trump administration again circumvent Congressional oversight and advance these weapons deliveries despite objections from the “Four Corners”, then Members of Congress should introduce, cosponsor, and vote for Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD’s) to block these weapons deliveries.
TOPLINES
Since October 2023, Israel has been inflicting genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, as documented by Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, an independent international UN commission, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars. As a party to the Genocide Convention, the US is obligated to prevent and punish genocide. One way that Congress can honor this obligation is by ending weapons deliveries to Israel.
If these weapons deliveries proceed, then the US will have provided approximately $37 billion of weapons to Israel since it began its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Not only do these weapons deliveries violate US obligations under international law to prevent genocide; they also make the US complicit in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and even partners in crime with Israel.
US law makes Israel ineligible for any US weapons deliveries. Both the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) strictly prohibit countries from using US weapons for purposes other than internal security and legitimate self-defense, as well as for other narrow purposes not covered by Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. In addition, the FAA mandates that no weapons may be “provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”
In addition, Section 620I of the FAA also specifically prohibits weapons to a country which “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.” In their recent CODEL report documenting Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley detail the ways in which Israel is prohibiting and restricting US humanitarian aid as part of its deliberate campaign of forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
The American people want to end US weapons to Israel and end US complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. According to an August 27 Quinnipiac public opinion poll, 60% of all Americans, and 75% of Democrats and 66% of independents, oppose sending Israel more weapons. By a 50-35 percent margin, all American voters (and 77% of Democrats) believe Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
DETAILS
Israel has used Apache helicopter gunships, infantry assault vehicles, and armored personnel carriers (APCs) throughout its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, including in its current campaign to ethnically cleanse more than one million Palestinians from Gaza City.
The Israeli military is reportedly using explosive-laden unmanned APCs to destroy infrastructure in Gaza City and flatten the area. The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a war crime.
Palestinian journalists also report that Apache helicopter gunships are being used currently in Israel’s destruction of Gaza City.
In June 2024, witnesses reported that Israeli-operated Apache helicopter gunships were used in the Nuseirat refugee camp massacre, in which 274 Palestinians were killed. A weapons expert posted this video and pictures of the attack, identifying the missiles as AGM-114 Hellfire missiles fired from Apache helicopter gunships.
Also in June 2024, an Israeli-operated Apache helicopter gunship was recorded firing over the tents of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza.
Additionally, in October 2023, the Israeli military fired a missile from a US-supplied Apache helicopter gunship toward a group of Palestinian civilians in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank, killing four children and six adults.
Photo: Davelees, via Shutterstock. Stock Photo ID: 1645845244