US President Joe Biden has provisionally approved a $680mn weapons sale to Israel, a fresh shipment of precision weapons that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited as one reason for backing a ceasefire with Hizbollah.
US officials recently briefed Congress on the plan to provide additional joint direct attack munition kits to Israel, known as Jdams, as well as small-diameter bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. The disclosure of such a planned arms sale, which Congress can raise objections to, typically comes before the public announcement of a deal.
The planned sale, which has not previously been reported, comes as Israel and Hizbollah begin to implement a fragile US-brokered ceasefire to stop more than a year of fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border.