Trump admin prepares $1 billion arms sale to Israel, including bombs and critical D-9 bulldozers – report

The Trump administration has requested congressional approval for the sale of around $1 billion worth of bombs and engineering equipment to Israel, U.S. officials familiar with the sale told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The arms package would come in addition to another $8 billion shipment requested by the Biden administration that includes munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters for the Israeli Air Force (IAF), as well as artillery shells. This shipment has not yet been approved.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently in the U.S. for a week-long visit and is expected to ask the Trump administration to expedite both sales.

After constant discussions with the Biden administration over the approval of weapon sales, including Israeli allegations of secret freezes and intentional delays, the new administration signaled there would be no more limitations on sales to Israel.

On Jan. 26, President Donald Trump said he was releasing the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the Biden administration had delayed due to its opposition to Israel’s operation in Rafah.

“We released them. We released them today. And they’ll have them. They paid for them, and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time. They’ve been in storage,” Trump told reporters.

The U.S. also notably excluded Israel from a “stop-work” order for all ongoing foreign assistance.

While the Biden administration notified congress about the planned $8 billion shipment in January, a congressional official told the WSJ that some Democrats are holding off on its approval.

“We continue engagement with the administration on a number of questions and concerns” about the weapons sale, a Democrat spokesman on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said.

Weapons sales above a certain threshold have to receive the green light from the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees, before being approved by Congress.

According to the report, the sale of D-9 bulldozers manufactured by Caterpillar as part of the new $1 billion shipment could provoke fresh opposition by some Democrat representatives.

In November, Ynet News cited security sources who said the U.S. had been holding up for months an already approved and paid-for sale of 134 bulldozers.

The armored vehicles have seen a new appreciation and increasing use within the IDF during the current wars.

"At the height of the fighting in Gaza, about a year ago, battalion commanders 'fought' over D-9 bulldozers, now they need to be maintained," IDF commanders told Ynet.

Most of the time, the IDF’s battlegroups maneuvering in the Gaza Strip were spearheaded by the enormous bulldozers, which are used to clear a path in the dense urban environment from booby-traps, or to safely demolish houses suspected or confirmed to be in the use of Hamas terrorists without endangering infantry units.

"It doesn't help at all that there are videos of American D-9 bulldozers destroying houses in Gaza, but this is reality," military sources said, "because these houses are used by terrorists."

In addition, the bulldozers are often being used in Judea and Samaria to “scrape” the streets, for example in the Jenin camp, to expose IEDs buried under the asphalt.

Palestinians have alleged they are also being used to destroy homes of innocent civilians.

The planned shipment includes the sale of $300 million worth of D-9s, as well as 4,700 1,000-pound bombs totaling some $700 million.

These are general-purpose, unguided bombs, which are then upgraded with Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kits to make them into precision-guided munitions, used by the Israeli Air Force.