# US notifies Congress of planned $8bn arms sale to Israel
The US Department of State notified Congress of a planned $8bn arms sale to Israel, according to an American official cited by the BBC. The package still needed approval from House and Senate committees, but the notification signaled another major weapons transfer to one of Washington’s closest military partners.
The proposed sale includes air-to-air missiles, Hellfire missiles, artillery shells and bombs. The BBC report said it would likely be the last planned weapons sale to Israel before Joe Biden left office on January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump was due to be inaugurated.
The timing matters because the Biden administration has faced rising scrutiny over military support for Israel during the war in Gaza. Washington has resisted calls to suspend arms transfers despite the civilian toll. The same report noted that in August the US had already approved a separate $20bn sale of fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel.
The scale of American support also remains striking. The BBC cited Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data showing the US supplied 69% of Israel’s imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023. That background helps explain why even a single notification to Congress carries geopolitical weight.
The package comes after previous friction within the Biden administration over bombs for Israel. In May 2024, the US paused one consignment of large and medium bombs over concerns about Israel’s operation in Rafah, but the suspension was later partly lifted. The episode briefly exposed limits on how far Washington was willing to go in publicly constraining its ally.
The article also places the new sale within the outgoing president’s broader effort to shape his legacy in the final weeks of office. The planned transfer adds to a series of recent steps that show no major change in the US approach to Israeli military aid before the White House changes hands.
For Israel, the shipment would reinforce access to advanced munitions at a time of continued fighting in Gaza and regional tension with Iran and its proxy groups. For Congress, it would renew the familiar question of whether oversight can meaningfully slow a sale once the executive branch has set it in motion.
The notification itself is not final approval, but it is an important bureaucratic milestone. It tells lawmakers the administration is moving forward and places the sale on a track that, absent a political intervention, is likely to proceed.
