The Trump administration is preparing to approve a $2.8 billion arms deal for Israel that includes 40,000 bombs weighing 2,000 pounds each, roughly 900 kilograms. According to a report Tuesday evening in The Washington Post, this represents the largest single sale of this type of munition to Israel in recent years.
The package includes 20,000 MK-84 bombs and 20,000 BLU-117 bombs, along with 20,000 I-2000 bunker-buster warheads. The deal will be funded through U.S. military aid to Israel and has already been informally transmitted to the relevant congressional committees ahead of the formal approval process.
Notably, these are the same bombs that stood at the center of a dispute between Israel and the United States. The Biden administration halted one shipment of them in spring 2024 over concerns about the use of heavy bombs in densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip. Trump reversed the freeze in January 2025 upon his return to the White House.
According to the report, the Trump administration is now working with the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee to advance approval of the deal. Delivery of weapons orders on this scale could take several years.
A senior administration official told The Washington Post in response that "all foreign military sales go through the appropriate process. We do not comment on sales that are in process."
