The Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that a shipment of about 1,800 heavy bombs from the United States that were being held by the previous US administration arrived in Israel last night.

The ministry said a ship carrying the 2,000-pound MK-84 ammunition docked at the port of Ashdod and was unloaded onto dozens of trucks and transported to Israeli air bases.

According to Israeli media, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz praised the arrival of the bombs, saying in a press statement: “The shipment of ammunition that arrived in Israel tonight, which was issued by the Trump administration, represents important equipment for the IDF and the air force and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States,” thanking US President Donald Trump and the US administration for their steadfast support for Israel.

The Times of Israel website quoted the Israeli Defense Ministry as saying that since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, more than 76,000 tons of military equipment have arrived in Israel on 678 transport planes and 129 ships, the vast majority from the United States.

The Biden administration rushed to send more than $22 billion in military aid to Israel throughout the fifteen months of Israel’s war of extermination on Gaza, between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025.

The Biden administration in late May briefly halted the expedited delivery of 2,000-pound bombs, requiring each transfer to go through the usual approval process for the type of bomb, as it does for other countries. The White House announced its decision to freeze one shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, with then-President Joe Biden threatening to freeze additional offensive weapons if Israel launched a major military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians were sheltering at the time.

But Israel invaded Rafah on May 6, and the United States did not stop the weapons as Israel had promised. Last July, the Biden administration sent 500-pound bombs after the Israeli occupation army entered Rafah.

The Biden administration has insisted that only the 2,000-pound bombs were being held back, due to concerns that Israel would use them in densely populated areas of Gaza, and that all other shipments had been processed.

On October 13, the United States warned Israel in a letter that it had a month to significantly alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to the war or risk the United States withholding arms shipments. But the threat never materialized, as the Biden administration claimed on November 13 that Israel had taken some of the steps required of it, despite the fact that all humanitarian organizations confirmed that Israel had not fulfilled any of its commitments to allow aid in.

Shortly after taking office on January 20, Trump announced that he had lifted Biden’s ban on a 2,000-pound bomb shipment to Israel.