President Donald Trump is expected to lift a Biden Administration freeze on heavy bombs for Israel in the coming days, according to Axios.
The shipment of 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs was withheld by President Joe Biden early last year, along with half of a shipment of 1,300 smaller, 500-pound bombs, to keep the IDF from invading the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Trump is expected to lift the hold on the above bombs in his first days of office, outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the United States Mike Herzog told the news outlet.
Although the Biden Administration’s weapon freezes delayed Israel’s entry into Rafah, ultimately the strategy did not work.
Israeli forces destroyed more than 100 subterranean passages beneath the city, which is honeycombed with terrorist smuggling tunnels, including some big enough to drive a truck through and some of which snaked beneath the border between Gaza and Egypt.
In November 2024, the Biden Administration also imposed a partial embargo of delivery of other military hardware that was already bought and paid for by the State of Israel.
That ban included 134 Caterpillar D-9 military bulldozers that were held up in factories due to a “delay” in the export permit that was to be issued by the State Department.
The Biden Administration also declined to expedite the delivery of attack helicopters, which would have involved the redirection of gunships intended for US forces supporting the IDF.
The White House claimed at the time that Israel was “not doing enough” to help local Gazans.
