How much military support the US has given Israel over the last year
By Adam Taylor, Leo Sands, Kelly Kasulis Cho and Adela Suliman
Washington: The United States has provided Israel with billions of dollars worth of security assistance and weapons over the past year since it began retaliating for Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. In addition, the Biden administration has deployed the US military in direct support of Israel.
The Gaza conflict has since broadened into an invasion of southern Lebanon amid fears of an even wider war. Ahead of Israel’s anticipated response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month, the US said on Sunday that it would send a THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defence anti-missile system, to Israel along with the American military personnel needed to operate it.
A man walks past a banner on display at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Maaysra, Lebanon.Credit: Getty Images
The deployment, which places US troops on the ground acting in Israel’s defence, comes after the US military helped defend Israel against two large-scale Iranian missile attacks in April and October.
THAAD is one of the most advanced US missile defence systems. It fires interceptors to destroy incoming ballistic missiles. Each interceptor is estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars, and a standard battery contains 48 interceptors.
Separate from the US military’s own efforts in defence of Israel, Washington has significantly increased military assistance funding sent to Israel and has approved more sales of arms and equipment to the country. Israel had already received more US military aid – and more US aid of any type – than any other country since World War II.
Immediately after Hamas’ attack a year ago, President Joe Biden said he would “make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of its citizens, defend itself, and respond”. The spiralling death toll in Gaza – which now exceeds 42,000, according to the health ministry there – has led to increased scrutiny of Western military support for Israel.
How has the US military supported Israel since October 7, 2023?
Since the attack on October 7 last year, the US has ramped up military operations in the Middle East, deploying the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, to the eastern Mediterranean.
In April, the US and other allies took part in an operation to defend Israel after Iran launched more than 100 ballistic missiles at the country, as well as about 30 cruise missiles and more than 150 explosive drones, officials later told The Washington Post.
The US used F-15E Strike Eagles to shoot down about 70 attack drones heading to Israel, while the USS Carney and USS Arleigh Burke — destroyers deployed to the eastern Mediterranean — shot down between four and six ballistic missiles. US troops in Iraq had used a Patriot missile defence system to shoot down another, the officials told The Post.
The US military also intervened when Iran attacked Israel again this month, firing at least a dozen interceptors at incoming ballistic missiles, the Pentagon press secretary, Major General Patrick Ryder, said on October 1.
The Pentagon has not offered estimates for the cost of US military support to Israel in this period. In an estimate released earlier this month, before the deployment of the THAAD system, Brown University’s Costs of War project said the cost of additional US operations in the Middle East since last October was $US4.9 billion ($7.3 billion).
The Pentagon has not provided an estimate for the cost of the deployment of a THAAD system to Israel. The US has seven THAAD batteries.
How much security assistance has the US provided to Israel since October 7?
US security assistance to Israel has totalled more than $US200 billion since the aftermath of World War II.
In 2016, the Obama administration agreed to provide an unprecedented amount of aid to Israel – as much as $US3.8 billion a year over a decade.
In June this year, The Post reported that the amount of security assistance provided to Israel since the war had hit $US6.5 billion, with nearly $US3 billion approved in May.
Lawmakers green-lit an even higher amount. In April, Congress approved a national security package that Biden said included $US14.1 billion worth of military aid allocated for Israel.
A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile defence system on display at the White House in 2019.Credit: AP
Some estimates put the total spent during wartime far higher. The analysis published by researchers at Brown University assessed that US military aid to Israel in the year since October 7 has exceeded $US17.9 billion. That figure includes long-standing commitments as well as emergency spending, spanning arms sales, military financing and at least $US4.4 billion in transfers from US stockpiles.
What weapons and military equipment has the US provided Israel since October 7?
While the Biden administration’s offer of one of its most advanced missile defence systems to Israel brings with it the first significant deployment of US forces to Israel since the war in Gaza began last year, Israel has used US-provided weaponry for its military campaign in Gaza and probably in Lebanon, too.
According to an analysis of visuals released by Israeli forces, Israel probably used US-made 900-kilogram munitions to kill Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut last month.
Many of the details of US military exports are not public, making it unclear how many of the weapons used or recent transfers represent routine supply, as opposed to an escalation intended to replenish munitions used in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Some of the military equipment sales have been publicly announced: at the end of 2023, the White House approved the sale of nearly 14,000 tank ammunition cartridges and equipment to Israel, worth $US106.5 million, and the sale of 155-millimetre artillery shells and related equipment worth $US147.5 million.
In March, The Post reported that the United States had quietly approved more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel since the previous October – amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other forms of lethal aid.
Other sales have been approved since the war began but will take years to fulfil. In August, for example, the Biden administration approved $US20 billion in further weapons sales to Israel, including tactical vehicles and 50,000 mortar cartridges scheduled for delivery starting in 2026, tank ammunition cartridges starting in 2027, and roughly 50 F-15 fighter jets starting in 2029.
What is the history of US security assistance to Israel?
During the 1970s, Washington provided surges in military aid to Israel as the country rebuilt its forces after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which a coalition of Arab nations, led by Egypt and Syria, launched an attack on Israel.
Since then, military aid has remained largely steady if adjusted for inflation, with the stated aim of helping Israel maintain a “qualitative military edge” over its neighbours.
Israeli Iron Dome air defence system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon.Credit: AP
Most US military aid to Israel falls under the Foreign Military Financing program, which provides grants that Israel uses to purchase US military goods and services. The US also contributes about $US500 million annually for joint missile defence systems. Since 2009, the US had contributed $US3.4 billion to missile defence funding, including $US1.3 billion for the Iron Dome, which stopped short-range rockets, the State Department said last year.
Israel was the first international operator of the F-35 fighter.Credit: Rick Bowmer
Israel has also been granted access to some of the most coveted US military technology. It was the first international operator of the F-35 fighter jet and used the craft in combat for the first time in 2018.
Over the decades, US military aid to Israel has mostly been a matter of bipartisan near-consensus. However, the US has paused military aid or conditioned it in rare moments.
After Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, then-president Ronald Reagan halted a shipment of artillery shells and cluster bombs while administration officials determined whether the transfer complied with domestic arms export laws. The following year, Reagan paused a shipment of F-16s until Israel withdrew from Lebanon.
Why is US military assistance to Israel under scrutiny?
Last month, The Post reported that government watchdogs were investigating some of the administration’s provisions of US weapons to Israel. The forthcoming reports follow concerns from within the US government that transfers could violate laws prohibiting American military assistance to foreign powers that have committed gross human rights violations or blocked the movement of humanitarian aid.
Israel denies restricting aid access and argues that Hamas bears responsibility for civilian casualties because the militant group operates in or near civilian areas. The Biden administration has acknowledged that Israel may have violated humanitarian law using American weapons but says security assistance must continue to flow to allow Israel to defend itself.
In May, the White House paused the shipment of thousands of weapons to Israel, including controversial 900-kilogram bombs, amid concerns over Israel’s plans to expand military operations in Gaza. The administration subsequently resumed a shipment sending 225-kilogram munitions.
Many US allies – including Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium – have already restricted military equipment transfers to Israel because of legal and political concerns about their potential use to commit war crimes.
The Washington Post
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
Most Viewed in World
>read more at © Sydney Morning Herald