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US to Resume Shipping 500-Pound Bombs to Israel, US Official Says

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP)
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US to Resume Shipping 500-Pound Bombs to Israel, US Official Says

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP)

President Joe Biden's administration will resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel but will continue to hold back on supplying 2,000-pound bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza, a US official said on Wednesday.

The US in May paused a shipment of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs due to concern over the impact they could have in Gaza during the war that began with Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 cross-border raid.

The administration's particular concern had been use of such large bombs in Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had taken refuge.

"We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs, particularly for Israel’s Rafah campaign which they have announced they are concluding," a US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

One 2,000-pound bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius.

The US official said the 500-pound bombs were put together in the same shipment with the larger ones that were paused and therefore got held up.

"Our main concern had been and remains the potential use of 2,000 lb bombs in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza ... Because our concern was not about the 500 lb bombs, those are moving forward as part of the usual process," the official added.

The US has notified Israel that it is releasing the 500-pound bombs but keeping the hold on the larger ones, a person familiar with the matter said.

In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Washington was withholding weapons, and pleaded with US officials to remedy the situation. Biden's aides expressed disappointment and confusion over the Israeli leader’s remarks.

During his visit to Washington, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said there had been significant progress on the issue of US munitions supply to Israel, adding "obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed."

Despite the pause on one shipment, Israel has continued to receive steady flow of US weaponry.

Reuters reported last month that between the start of Gaza war last October and end-June, the US has transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions.

International scrutiny of Israel's military operation in Gaza has intensified as the Palestinian death toll from the war has exceeded 38,000, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the coastal enclave in ruins.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on Oct. 7 when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

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Crisis in French-Algerian Relations Opens the Door to the Unknown

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)
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Crisis in French-Algerian Relations Opens the Door to the Unknown

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)

Three questions are raised by the decision of French President Emmanuel Macron to adopt the Moroccan approach to the Sahara issue, which is included in the Rabat Plan proposed in 2007: the first is the timing, the second is the reasons and motivations, and the third is the consequences and results.
Macron, along with French diplomacy, are aware of how sensitive the Sahara issue is to Algeria, and they know that the Algerian side will not be able to absorb the radical change in the French position.
French political sources said that the French president wanted to achieve two goals: the first is to take advantage of the occasion of Morocco’s celebration of the ascension of King Mohammed VI to the throne “to offer him a diplomatic and political gift in a file that the latter had made a compass for his country’s foreign policy.” Macron went further than Spain when it largely adopted the Moroccan solution plan in 2022.

The second reason for the timing of Macron’s initiative is linked, according to the political sources, to the internal political situation in France, where the government has resigned, parliament is on vacation and the country is busy with the Olympics.
It is likely that Macron wanted to benefit from the current institutional “vacuum” before forming a new government, which may have a different approach to the Sahara issue, despite the fact that the French Constitution entrusts the President of the Republic with drawing up the country’s foreign and defense policy.
Press reports revealed that French diplomats began working on the new approach in the spring of 2023, and that many meetings were held between diplomatic officials from the two sides.
These reports also referred to the pressure exerted by Moroccan diplomacy on France, and one of the arguments, according to French “L’Opinion”, was to remind Paris that former President Jacques Chirac, who was a great friend of Morocco, was the one who called on Rabat, since 2003, to present its autonomy plan, in order to bypass a Sahrawi referendum that would decide on the fate of the Sahara.
L'Opinion pointed to another factor: the departure of Bernard Emie, the former ambassador to Algeria and director of French foreign intelligence, from the scene last spring. Emie was one of the strongest advocates for the establishment of a special relationship between Paris and Algeria, and his absence left the door open for those who continued to assert that Algeria did not respond to the initiatives of Macron, who during the past three years made major efforts to close the controversial files with Algiers.
Another French political source added that Paris saw today that Algeria’s ability to influence its immediate surroundings, especially in the Sahel region, has declined significantly after its dispute with two neighboring countries, Mali and Niger. On the other hand, Morocco’s return to the African Union could constitute a “platform” for joint French-Moroccan action at the political, economic, and investment levels.
Politics cannot be separated from economic, trade and investment interests. France has major interests in Morocco, which may have played some role in pushing the French authorities to change their approach, and causing a “heavy” crisis with Algeria.
In response to Algeria’s decision to immediately withdraw its ambassador to Paris, Said Makousi, a French diplomatic source said that France “took note of Algeria’s decision, which is a sovereign decision.”
He added: “We are determined to strengthen our bilateral relations with Algeria; we look to the future, and our great ambition is to work for the benefit of our two peoples.”