A new report by Brown University’s Costs of War project revealed this Monday that from October 7 last year to this late September, the US has assisted at least $22.76 billion to Israel.
With the bloody war in Gaza reaching its one-year anniversary this Monday, the results of a newly published report showed that between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2024, the US government spent at least $22.76 billion to support Israel’s war machine in Gaza.
The report, published by Brown University’s Costs of War project, noted that “since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by Hamas one year ago, Washington provided Israel with $17.9 billion in military aid alone, the highest amount in the two countries’ histories, adjusted for inflation.” But as the report also explained, this figure represents “only a partial picture of total US support for the Israeli [army] in its war in Gaza.”
“The $17.9 billion figure is divided as follows: $4 billion to replenish Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems; $1.2 billion for the Iron Beam defense system; $3.5 billion for the procurement of advanced weapons systems, defense articles, and defense services through the FMF program; $1 billion to enhance the production and development of artillery and critical munitions; $4.4 billion to replenish defense articles and defense services provided to Israel from US stocks; finally, the total figure also includes Israel’s usual annual military aid installment of $3.8 billion,” the report explained.
What weapons US has delivered to Israel?
As the report noted, a large portion of US “security assistance” for Israel was spend to deliver Israel munitions, from artillery shells to 2,000-pound bombs that have been dropped over residential areas in Gaza and Lebanon.
“The weapons have come through a variety of channels, including existing US stocks, including the multi-billion dollar WRSA-I stocks located in Israel, commercial sales approved by the State Department, Foreign Military Sales (FMS) approved by State and negotiated and brokered by the Pentagon, Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which provides grants for the purchase of US defense articles and services, and the Excess Defense Articles (EDA) program, which provides used systems no longer needed by US forces for free or at a steep discount,” the report added.
The money is much more than the reported figures!
Clarifying about the exact figure of US financial aids to Israel, the report also said that there are other broad categories of spending that are not included in this figure, such as increased US security assistance to Egypt, Saudi Arabia or any other countries that have been done to support Israel in one way or another.
In addition, the US has worked to obscure “the full amounts of aid and types of systems through bureaucratic maneuvering,” in particular, by making sure that over 100 arms deals signed with Tel Aviv over the past year did not exceed the threshold that would have required reporting them to Congress. This includes, as the report highlighted, “$14 million for major defense equipment and $50 million for defense articles and services, ranging from weapons systems to equipment maintenance and military training.”
