WASHINGTON — More than 50 human rights, faith-based and foreign-policy organizations are urging Congress to publicly oppose the Trump administration’s proposed $2.8 billion sale to Israel of some of the US military’s most destructive conventional weapons.

“Failing to do so would amount to a blank check for further catastrophic harm and human rights violations,” groups including Human Rights Watch, Oxfam America, Amnesty International USA and the Episcopal Church said in a letter sent to congressional offices Thursday that was exclusively shared with Al-Monitor. 

Last month, the State Department informally notified key congressional committees that it intends to sell Israel 40,000 2,000-pound MK-84 and BLU-117 bombs, whose wide blast radius can devastate large areas. The package also includes 20,000 bunker-busting I-2000 penetrator warheads that are used to strike deeply buried targets. Most of the package would be funded via Foreign Military Financing, a US program that provides Israel and other partners with taxpayer-funded aid to purchase American-made weapons.

“The Israeli government has used these bombs to devastating effect” during its ongoing conflicts against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the letter reads. US and international media outlets as well as the United Nations’ human rights office have documented Israel’s use of 2,000-pound munitions that caused massive craters in parts of Gaza that were designated “safe” for civilians, as well as in densely populated areas of Lebanon. 

In the months following Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023, the Biden administration sent Israel thousands of heavy bombs. As the civilian casualties mounted, it paused a shipment of the MK-84s in May 2024, concerned about their potential use in the crowded Gazan city of Rafah. Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump reversed the decision. 

Israel has historically been the largest recipient of US military aid. Federal US law restricts arms transfers to countries that engage in a consistent pattern of gross human rights violations or restrict the delivery of US-backed humanitarian assistance. 

Congressional pressure builds

Last month, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, placed informal holds on the administration’s latest proposed sale to Israel under a longstanding practice meant to give lawmakers time to resolve concerns with the administration over potential arms transfers. 

The Trump administration can choose to override the process, as it did most recently in January to expedite a $6.5 billion weapons package to Israel that included Apache helicopters and combat vehicles. Should the administration proceed with formal notification to Congress of the current sale, the civil society letter urges lawmakers to advance a joint resolution of disapproval in both chambers to block the transfer.  

It would likely be largely symbolic, given that similar efforts to block arms sales to Israel have all fallen short of the votes needed to pass. In April, a resolution of disapproval led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to block a sale of 1,000-pound bombs to Israel failed to clear the Senate after eleven Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against it. 

The war in Gaza has fueled growing Democratic support for conditioning arms transfers to Israel, whose military campaign against Hamas has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. A US-brokered ceasefire in October 2025 halted the heaviest fighting, but Israeli strikes have continued as negotiators implement the next phase of the truce, including Hamas’ disarmament and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.