The Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saarthanked this Sunday the American president, donald trumphis decision to unfreeze the shipment of a shipment of heavy bombs that had been stopped by his predecessor, Joe Bidento prevent them from being used in the Gaza Strip.
“Thank you, President Trump, for yet another show of leadership in unfreezing key defense shipping to Israel. The region is safer when Israel has what it needs to defend itself“Saar wrote on his X social network account.
“Many things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but not sent by Biden, are on the way!” the US president wrote on his social media app. Social Truth.
Additionally, he assured reporters aboard Air Force One: “We released them (the bombs). We released them today. And they will have them. They paid for them and have been waiting for them for a long time. They have been stored”.
Hours before, on Saturday, the American media Axios had reported that Trump ordered the Pentagon lift the suspension imposed by Biden to the supply of 1,800 MK-84 bombswhich weigh about a ton.
The shipment, stored in the United States, will be placed on a ship and delivered to Israel in the coming days.
Although Biden supported the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip and maintained the supply of weapons, he decided paralyze in May the sending of these bombs for fear that they would be used in densely populated areas of the city of Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
That decision led to one of the greatest moments of tension between Washington and the Government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The middle The Times of Israel recalled that when Trump won the presidential election in November, he significantly reduced the Biden administration’s influence over Israel, leading Jerusalem to assume that the next president would reverse any decision to withhold arms shipments upon his return to office.
In October, Washington sent a warning formal to Jerusalem: he had one month to significantly alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, unleashed by the war, or risk having the United States suspend the shipment of weapons. However, the threat never materialized. By November, Joe Biden’s government recognized that Israel had adopted some of the required measures, although not all of them, the Israeli media explained.
Among the key points that the US administration had pushed to implement were the daily entry of at least 350 trucks with humanitarian aid into Gaza, the implementation of “appropriate” pauses in the fighting and the confirmation that there was no official evacuation policy. of civilians in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
Since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, Biden supported Israel’s goal of eliminating the Islamist group from the Gaza Strip, while calling on Netanyahu to mitigate damage to the enclave’s civilian population.
The lifting of the blockade on the bombs was announced after a truce agreement and release of hostages in Gaza came into force on January 19, which was mediated by Qatar and Egypt, as well as Biden’s teams. and Trump, who took office on January 20.
In this regard, Trump stated on Saturday that would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other countries accept more Palestinian refugees from Gaza, in an effort to reduce the territory’s population and start from “scratch” in the war-torn area.
During the conversation he had with journalists aboard Air Force One, he said that he had spoken with King Abdullah II of Jordan and that he planned to communicate this Sunday with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Trump praised Jordan for previously accepting Palestinian refugees and suggested the country could take more. “I said (to the king): ‘I would love for them to take on more, because I’m looking at the entire Gaza Strip now, and it’s a disaster. It’s a real disaster’”, he expressed.
The president indicated that this resettlement could be temporary or long term and raised the possibility of building housing in other locations, in collaboration with Arab nations, so that Palestinians can “live in peace for a change.” According to Trump, Gaza is currently a “demolition site””, where “almost everything is destroyed and people are dying.”
(With information from EFE and AP)
