WASHINGTON: The United States under the Biden and Trump administrations has provided at least $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel since the start of the Gaza war two years ago, according to a new academic study published Tuesday, the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that provoked the conflict.
Another study, also published by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, says the US has spent roughly $10 billion more on security aid and operations in the broader Middle East in the past two years.
While the reports rely on open source material for most of their findings, they offer some of the most comprehensive accountings of US military aid to close ally Israel and estimated costs of direct American military involvement in the Middle East.
The State Department had no immediate comment about the amount of military aid provided to Israel since October 2023. The White House referred questions to the Pentagon, which oversees only a portion of the assistance.
The reports, which draw on publicly available notifications to Congress, were released as President Donald Trump presses for an end to the war in Gaza. Israeli and Hamas officials launched indirect talks in Egypt this week after Hamas accepted some elements of the US plan that Israel also said it supported.
The reports, which are sharply critical of Israel, say that without the US assistance, Israel would not have been able to sustain its concerted campaign against Hamas in Gaza. They note that tens of billions of dollars in future funding for Israel is projected under various bilateral agreements.
The main report says the US provided $17.9 billion to Israel in the first year of the war — when Democratic President Joe Biden was in office — and $3.8 billion in the second year. Some of the military assistance has already been delivered while the remainder will be supplied in the coming years, it said.
That report was produced in conjunction with the Washington-based Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. The institute has been accused by some pro-Israel groups of being isolationist and anti-Israel, charges the organization denies.
A second report analyzing US spending on broader Middle East activities, such as strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iranian nuclear facilities, puts those costs at between $9.65 billion and $12 billion since Oct. 7, 2023, including between $2 billion and $2.25 billion for the attacks in Iran and associated costs in June.
US has given at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since war in Gaza began, report says
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US has given at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since war in Gaza began, report says
- The reports say that without the US assistance, Israel would not have been able to sustain its concerted campaign against Hamas in Gaza
Israel says Gazans who landed in S. Africa unexpectedly had third-country approval
- South Africa’s home affairs ministry said 130 of the group entered the country, while the remaining 23 took onward flights to other destinations
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told journalists on Friday that it seemed “like they were being flushed out”
JERUSALEM: Israeli authorities said on Saturday that 153 Palestinians who turned up unexpectedly in South Africa, triggering questions from its president, had received entry approval from an unnamed third country.
Shimi Zuaretz, a spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli body that runs civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, told AFP they had only been allowed to leave Gaza “after COGAT received approval from a third country to receive them.”
He did not name the country.
After landing in Johannesburg on Thursday, the Gazans were kept aboard their plane for 12 hours because they did not have departure stamps from Israel in their passports, South African border police said.
The home affairs ministry finally allowed the passengers to disembark when an NGO said it would provide them with accommodation.
The NGO, Gift of the Givers, told South African media it did not know who had chartered the flight or a previous one that brought 176 Gazans on October 28.
An Israeli official who did not wish to be identified told AFP that the organization which coordinated the transfer had submitted third-country visas to COGAT for all the evacuated residents.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told journalists on Friday that it seemed “like they were being flushed out.”
“These are people from Gaza who somehow mysteriously were put on a plane that passed by Nairobi and came here,” he said.
South Africa’s home affairs ministry said 130 of the group entered the country, while the remaining 23 took onward flights to other destinations.
Zuaretz said COGAT facilitates the departure of Gaza residents through Israel to receiving countries, for patients requiring medical treatment, dual citizens and their family members, “or those possessing visas to third countries.”
Israel “bases its decisions solely on requests received from foreign countries,” he added, saying the departure of more than 40,000 Gaza residents had been facilitated since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the retaliatory war in the Gaza Strip.
South Africa, which hosts the largest Jewish community in sub-Saharan Africa, has largely been supportive of the Palestinian cause.
The government filed a case against Israel with the International Court of Justice in 2023, accusing it of genocide in Gaza.
