United States President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to sell 60,000 highly destructive, 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs to Israel in a multibillion-dollar package which will be funded by American taxpayers.
US media has reported that the Trump administration has approved the sale, which features some of the most destructive munitions in Western arsenals, and has informally notified Congress.
This is one of the biggest US munition packages to Israel and comes after nearly three years of genocidal war on Gaza, ongoing pogroms by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and a mighty assault on southern Lebanon – which together have killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in the region.
It also comes as the US’s own munitions stockpile has been depleted due to its war on Iran, with the crisis worsened by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
So, what bombs are the US sending to Israel, and what can Israel do with them?
What weapons are the US planning to sell to Israel?
The Trump administration has not officially confirmed this sale yet. A senior administration official told AFP news agency that “all foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process”, but refused to comment on pending transactions.
Meanwhile, a State Department spokesperson told AFP that “as a matter of policy, the Department does not confirm or comment on proposed arms sales until they have been formally notified to Congress”.
However, Washington is reported to be on track to deliver a munitions package to Israel that is believed to include 60,000 warheads, including 20,000 MK-84s, 20,000 BLU-117s and 20,000 I-2000 Penetrator.
The sale is worth $2.8bn, the majority of which will be paid for by the US’s Foreign Military Financing scheme, wherein Washington pays Israel from its own taxpayers’ funds to buy American-made weapons and military equipment.
The three types of bomb are:
- MK-84: The largest among the Mark 80 series of bombs, this unguided, 2,000-pound (907kg) general-purpose bomb is designed primarily for maximum blast and fragmentation against buildings and moderately protected targets. It can destroy buildings and kill or injure people hundreds of metres from the bomb site.
- BLU-117: A 2,000-pound (907kg) general-purpose bomb which looks very similar to the MK-84 but has a different explosive filler and can also be fitted with precision-guidance kits. It also has a thermal protective coating, designed for safer storage, particularly by the US Navy.
- I-2000 Penetrator: Also referred to as a “bunker buster”, this roughly 2,000-pound-class, hard-target penetrator is designed to punch through hardened structures before detonating; its casing is substantially thicker and harder than an MK-84.
In 2024, then-President Joe Biden’s administration paused the delivery of some 2,000-pound-class bombs to Israel amid growing international criticism by rights groups about the disproportionate number of civilians being killed in attacks.
Trump ended the pause when he returned to the presidency the following year – and bypassed a usual congressional review process to approve a nearly $3bn arms sale to Israel that included more than 35,500 of these powerful bombs. In January this year, Washington approved a further package of arms sales to Israel worth $6.67bn.
When has Israel used 2,000-pound US bombs before?
Israel had been using 2,000-pound-class bombs, especially in the occupied Palestinian territory and in Lebanon, for at least four decades prior to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered Israel’s war on Gaza.
In 1981, Israel used this bomb during the Osirak bombing, known as Operation Opera, in an air strike which destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. The next year, Israel dropped these bombs in Lebanon and Syria, accounting for a high civilian toll during attacks.
According to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), which conducts defence policy research and analysis, a 2,000-pound blast will severely damage, injure or kill everything or anyone within 35 metres (115 feet).
Averaged across different types of surfaces, a 2000-pound bomb will carve out a crater 50 feet (15 metres) across and 16 feet (5 metres) deep.
Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, preliminary research suggests that Israel has used these powerful and destructive bombs more frequently.
For instance, on October 31, 2023, Israel dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on the Jabalia refugee camp in a densely populated area of Gaza City, leaving a giant crater amid bombed-out buildings, and killing dozens of civilians. The UN human rights office said the Israeli air attack could amount to a war crime.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in November 2024. Washington has ridiculed the court’s jurisdiction.
How lethal are these bombs?
According to an Al Jazeera investigation, The Rest of the Story, civil defence teams in Gaza have documented 2,842 Palestinians who witnesses say in effect “evaporated” in the blast of bombs since the war began in October 2023, leaving behind no remains other than blood spray or small fragments of flesh.
Experts and witnesses have attributed this phenomenon to Israel’s systematic use of internationally prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons, often referred to as vacuum or aerosol bombs, capable of generating temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius (6,332 degrees Fahrenheit).
The investigation detailed how specific chemical compositions in Israeli munitions turn human bodies into ash in seconds – and identified specific US-manufactured munitions used in Gaza that are linked to these disappearances, including MK-84 and BLU series bunker busters.
Vasily Fatigarov, a Russian military expert, explained that these weapons do not just kill; they obliterate matter. Unlike conventional explosives, these weapons disperse a cloud of fuel that ignites to create an enormous fireball and a vacuum effect.
“To prolong the burning time, powders of aluminium, magnesium and titanium are added to the chemical mixture,” Fatigarov said. “This raises the temperature of the explosion to between 2,500 and 3,000 degrees Celsius [4,532F to 5,432F].”
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