By Steve Holland, Nandita Bose and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican President Donald Trump said on Saturday he has instructed the U.S. military to release a hold imposed by Democratic former President Joe Biden on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.
The move was widely expected.
“We released them. We released them today. And they’ll have them. They paid for them and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time. They’ve been in storage,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Biden put the hold on the delivery of those bombs due to concern over the impact they could have on the civilian population, particularly in Gaza’s Rafah, during Israel’s war in the Palestinian enclave.
One 2,000-pound bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius. Reuters reported last year that the Biden administration had sent thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants from Gaza but had a put a hold on one shipment.
Washington has announced assistance for Israel worth billions of dollars since the war began.
When asked why he released the powerful bombs, Trump responded, “because they bought them.”
Earlier on Saturday, Trump said on the Truth Social platform, “A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are now on their way!”
Trump and Biden have been strong supporters of U.S. ally Israel, even as Washington has come under criticism from human rights advocates over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s military assault. Protesters have unsuccessfully demanded an arms embargo.
Washington says it is helping Israel defend against Iran-backed militant groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
A Gaza ceasefire went into effect a week ago and has led to the release of some Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Before his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump had warned there would be “hell to pay” if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were not released.
Hamas took around 250 hostages during the 2023 attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies. It sparked the latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed more than 47,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. It also displaced nearly all of Gaza’s population and caused a hunger crisis.
