The State Department notified Congress on Thursday night that $3.5 billion will be released to Israel in the coming days for the purchase of American weapons and military equipment.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also spoke late Thursday night with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to brief his American counterpart on the IDF’s operational readiness to defend Israel against Iran and its proxies in the region.
The two men discussed the interoperability of US and Israeli defense capabilities following the posture change and deployment of US forces and assets to the region.
Gallant also discussed force build-up efforts and expressed his appreciation to the Secretary for US security assistance and the provision of critical munition to Israel.
The $3.5 billion expenditure for the purchase of American arms equals just over 20 percent of the total allocation approved by Congress in its $14.1 billion supplemental funding bill for Israel this past April.
However, it’s important to note that the weapons purchased with these funds will not be available immediately or even in the near future.
The funding — which will also take time to release — is intended for the procurement of systems currently being built. Those systems are not going to be available for several years.
However, the bill passed by Congress also allocated billions of dollars to be used for equipment the Pentagon can draw from existing stockpiles to send directly the Israel, according to CNN.
The US greatly reduced its existing stockpile of weapons and ammunition on Israeli territory earlier this year in order to send the arms to Ukraine.
