The Trump administration is considering sending 24,000 assault rifles to Israel that had been held up at the State Department on the orders of Antony J. Blinken, the former secretary of state, a U.S. official said.
Mr. Blinken had asked the State Department not to move forward with fulfilling Israel’s request, which comprises three tranches valued at a total of $34 million. That happened after Democratic lawmakers raised concerns that the rifles could end up in the hands of settler militias or that Israeli police officers would use them in acts of unjustified violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The State Department did not reply to a question sent by email on Friday about the possibility of moving forward with the order. The Israeli Embassy said earlier that it had addressed questions raised by the U.S. officials about the arms sales.
Israel is buying more than three-quarters of the pending rifles from Colt’s Manufacturing.
The lawmakers became aware of the arms order after the State Department gave informal notification of the sale to two congressional committees a few weeks after Hamas attacks in Israel in October 2023 ignited fierce strikes by the Israeli military in Gaza. The New York Times reported that the order prompted concern from lawmakers and some State Department officials.
At the time, Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right Israeli politician, was the minister of national security. He has supported the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and the annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. Some Democratic lawmakers were concerned that his police forces would use the American weapons to support settlers engaged in violence against Palestinians, which has become increasingly common in recent years, or to carry out acts of violence themselves.
Mr. Ben-Gvir said in October 2023 that he would give arms to settlements and create civilian militias for the protection of settlers.
When asked then about concerns about how the rifles would be used, a State Department official said the weapons would go only to “I.N.P.-controlled units,” referring to the Israeli National Police. But the official, Jessica Lewis, who runs the bureau in charge of arms transfers, did not define such units.
Mr. Ben-Gvir and his party left the government last month to protest a new series of Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swaps.
In December 2023, Democratic lawmakers informally approved the order of rifles on the condition that Israel provide proper assurances for their use, said the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive weapons orders. Lawmakers then continued to express concerns to Mr. Blinken, who eventually ordered the rifles held.
The Biden administration rarely rejected weapons requests from Israel, a policy that led to widespread criticism from Democrats as Israel’s bombings devastated Gaza. President Trump has signaled that he will support Israel even more ardently.
On Jan. 24, the White House told the Pentagon it could send a large shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel that Mr. Biden had held up last summer in an effort to dissuade Israel from dropping heavy ordnance on the Palestinian city of Rafah, which it did anyway. U.S. military officials deem 2,000-pound bombs to be too destructive to use in urban warfare.
Mike Huckabee, Mr. Trump’s pick as the next ambassador to Israel, has said that all of the West Bank belongs to Israel and that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.”
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