Reuters released an "exclusive message" on the 8th, saying that four people familiar with the matter, including a current U.S. ** and a former**, revealed that Biden ** has urged the U.S. Congress to approve the submission to Israel**450,000 Merkava main battle tank shells for the Israeli offensive against the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip.
According to the report, since the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict on October 7, the problem of civilians caused by the US system used in this conflict has increasingly aroused concern from the outside world. According to Reuters, the potential deal is worth more than $500 million and is not included in Biden's additional request for $110.5 billion in aid funding for Ukraine and Israel, among others. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee are conducting an informal review of the deal.
According to the report, an American and a former Josh Paul revealed that the United States is pushing congressional committees to quickly approve the deal amid human rights advocates opposing the use of the American system in the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict. "Earlier this week, the report was presented to the committee, and they should have 20 days to review the deal involving Israel," Paul added, "*and now they are being urged to remove the obstacles." According to Reuters, Paul resigned from the United States in October in what he called the "blind support" of the United States for Israel.
The report mentioned that the above two sources also said that the United States is also considering using the "Export Control Act" for emergency authorization to allow 41 out of 50,000 tank shells30,000 were able to bypass the committee and the review period, but the final decision has not yet been made. A U.S.** said that given the high tension in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, this move will prepare Israel for contingencies.
According to the report, the online ** shows that Israel has deployed Merkava main battle tanks in the Gaza Strip and the southern border of Lebanon, and these tanks have also been linked to incidents involving the death of foreign journalists. An investigative article published by Reuters on Thursday (7th) said that Israeli tank crews fired two shells in a row from Israel, resulting in the death of Reuters reporter Issam Abdullah and the wounding of six other journalists, who were filming the cross-border shelling of Israeli forces.
Reuters said that as the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict intensifies, the specific use of the US system in the conflict and the place have attracted attention. Human rights advocates have expressed concern about U.S. arms sales to Israel, saying they are at odds with Washington's efforts to urge Israel to minimize civilians. "The United States continues to provide Israel with ** and diplomatic cover to help it commit atrocities, including collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which may constitute complicity in war crimes," said Carbono, director of Human Rights Watch at the UN Human Rights Council. ”