The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced, this Sunday morning, the arrival of a shipment of MK-84 heavy bombs to Israel, following US President Donald Trump's decision to release them, following their suspension by the Joe Biden administration about a year ago.

The shipment’s arrival coincided with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Israel on his first tour of the Middle East. According to Israel’s Army Radio, the shipment includes 1,800 bombs, the same quantity that the Biden administration had previously suspended.

The Biden administration had suspended the delivery of these bombs, each weighing one ton, coinciding with the occupation forces’ invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in May 2024, against the backdrop of their use in bombing operations that caused large numbers of civilian casualties.

According to a statement by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the shipment arrived on the night of Saturday-Sunday, as part of a joint transfer operation led by the Israeli procurement mission in the United States, in cooperation with the IDF's Planning Division and the International Shipping Unit.

The ship carrying the ammunition arrived at the port of Ashdod, where it was unloaded and loaded onto dozens of military trucks belonging to the Israeli army's transportation units, before being transported to air bases. These bombs are among the heavy aerial ammunition allocated to the Israeli Air Force.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz described the shipment as “an important strategic addition to the Israeli Air Force and the IDF,” thanking US President Donald Trump and his administration for “standing firmly by Israel’s side.”

The statement indicated that the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli army continue to intensively enhance the purchase and transfer of ammunition, explaining that Israel has so far received more than 76 thousand tons of military equipment, which was transported via 678 flights and 129 sea shipments.

The ministry described it as "the largest military air and sea bridge in Israel's history," without indicating the time period that these operations took; noting that Washington had suspended this shipment due to concerns about the impact it might have in Gaza during the war.

A study published in the journal PLOS Global Public Health last October revealed that the Israeli army dropped this type of bomb on areas very close to all of Gaza’s hospitals during the first weeks of the war it launched on the Strip.

The study revealed that between October 7 and November 17, 2023, Israel dropped 2,000-pound (1-ton) bombs within the lethal geographic range of up to 25% of all hospitals in Gaza.