Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has placed a hold on a proposed $2.8 billion weapons sale to Israel, The Hill reported.
Shaheen has voiced growing frustration that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to address concerns raised by Democratic lawmakers regarding civilian casualties in Gaza, cross-border strikes in Syria, and escalating violence against Palestinians by extremist illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The contested weapons package includes 40,000 one-tonne (2,000-pound) bombs.
The Biden administration had previously withheld deliveries of identical heavy munitions due to serious concerns surrounding their destructive footprint in urban areas of Gaza and the resulting civilian death toll.
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Bipartisan Capitol Hill resistance
As the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Shaheen holds the authority under established informal customs to place a hold on significant arms transfers whilst the State Department addresses congressional objections.
Semafor first revealed that she imposed the hold in July.
Her House of Representatives counterpart, Representative Gregory Meeks, also announced on Wednesday that he had blocked clearance for the same sale, citing grave doubts over whether Netanyahu’s government would deploy the weapons in accordance with United States statutes and international humanitarian law.