Trump administration plans to send powerful bombs to Israel in $2.8
billion weapons sale
[September 16, 2026]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MATTHEW LEE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is planning to deliver
powerful 2,000-pound bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal,
weapons that prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass
casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery
two years ago.
The $2.8 billion package includes 40,000 of the bombs, made up of 20,000
Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two U.S. officials and a person
familiar with the plan who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to
discuss the package, which is not yet final.
Congress has been informally notified about the pending deal, most of
which is to be paid for with foreign military financing — in which U.S.
taxpayer dollars are given to Israel to turn around and buy the weapons
from the United States.
The proposed sale is just the latest in a series of Trump administration
steps to improve Israeli’s military capacity. The conflict in Gaza has
left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and has decimated the
enclave. The U.S. brokered a fragile ceasefire, but violence has
continued.
The package, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, comes as
Israel has faced increasing international isolation over its war in Gaza
in response to the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas.
The sale signals that some strains in the relationship between President
Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially
since the two countries launched the war against Iran in February, are
not impeding the closeness of the U.S.-Israeli alliance. Trump has had a
hot-and-cold history with Netanyahu over the years and expressed some
frustration with Netanyahu tied to the Iran conflict before their latest
meeting in July at the White House.
In 2024, the Biden administration held off on one shipment of the bombs,
but Trump lifted that hold when he took office again.
Last year, the Trump administration bypassed a normal congressional
review process and approved a nearly $3 billion sale to Israel that
included more than 35,500 of the bombs. The administration then approved
a new series of arms sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion in January.
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Palestinians carry the body of Ahmad Al-Batsh, a Qassam Brigades
commander in Jabaliya, the military wing of Hamas, during his
funeral after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City,
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)
The 2,000-pound bombs have multiple variants, with some designed to
penetrate deep, underground targets while others detonate above ground
and cause widespread damage.
Though the Israeli military has offered few details about what bombs and
artillery it has used in Gaza, experts analyzing strike footage and
blast fragments found on-site believe the U.S.-made bombs have been used
there, targeting a tunnel network used by Hamas but also killing of
people in densely populated areas.
While the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided since the fragile
ceasefire took hold in October, Israel has continued to carry out
strikes in the territory, including some overnight and into Tuesday that
killed several people. That is even after Jared Kushner, Trump’s
son-in-law and a key Mideast negotiator, met with Netanyahu last month
in an effort to push the ceasefire deal forward and asked Israel to
reduce its attacks.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on Israeli troops, and
Israel says its strikes are in response to those and other ceasefire
violations.
The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023 killed around 1,200
people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s offensive in Gaza to
retaliate has killed more than 73,264 Palestinians, including those
killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
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