Just hours after the Biden administration Friday announced approval of $3.5 billion in military funds for Israel and shipments for new weaponry, an Israeli bombing of a school-turned-shelter in Gaza has killed 100 people or more, including scores of civilian men, women, and children in what was described as a “bloody massacre” that struck during morning prayers, leaving body parts scattered “in pieces” and healthcare workers overwhelmed with the dead and wounded.

Just hours before the bombing, the U.S. State Department announcement that a $3.5 billion tranche of funds — part of a larger $14.1 billion in overseas military aid approved by Congress earlier this year — would be released to the Israeli government for weapons procurement.

As CNN reported, while some of those weapons purchases made possible by the fund may take years, the “supplemental funding also allocated billions of dollars’ worth of equipment that the Pentagon can draw from its own stockpiles to send directly to Israel on a much faster timeline.”

Referencing a separate decision by the State Department to suspend an investigation into documented abuse violations by the “notorious” Netzah Yehuda Unit within the IDF, Jarrar said the “decisions of sending weapons to Israel and not sanctioning Israeli human rights abusers are not just corrupt policy decisions, they are criminal acts.”

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, reports directly to Biden, and serves at his pleasure. If Biden didn’t want this approved, it wouldn’t have been approved.