President Trump has hailed that the Gaza ceasefire is holding, but simultaneously suggested that Israel should 'clean out' the Gaza Strip. It has become obvious that Hamas has not been defeated, and in fact there are signs showing the Islamist militant group is regrouping and resurging.
Trump within the past days has released a hold on a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel previously paused by the Biden administration, according to Axios. This 'controversial' move of Biden had largely been but a PR ploy at a time when the prior Democratic administration was being overwhelmed with criticism over its Israel-Gaza policies.
The paused shipment, which is now resuming, includes 1,800 MK-84 bombs being stored in the United States. Trump vowed these "paid for" weapons are en route to Israel.
"A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are now on their way!" Trump declared on Truth Social.
Shipments of 500-pound bombs had also been temporarily halted, but in July this pause was lifted by Biden. These pauses on large bombs unlikely had any real impact on Israel's military capabilities or actions.
Instead, the prior administration tried to use it as an incentive for Israel to greatly reduce the number of civilian casualties among Palestinians, as the IDF had been accused of indiscriminate killing.
The Netanyahu government in turn claimed that this was an "arms embargo" by Biden against Israel, despite that something like 99+ percent of all military continued to flow the whole time.
Outgoing Israeli ambassador to the US Mike Herzog was the first to signal over a week ago that Trump was expected to release the bombs.
"We believe that Trump is going to release, at the beginning of his term, the munitions that haven't been released until now by the Biden administration," Herzog had said in a media interview.
Israeli government figures have put the number of Hamas dead at 20,000 or more after nearly a year-and-a-half of war. However, Gaza health sources have said at least 45,000 mostly civilians have been killed. Gaza Health authority figures don't distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Many independent analysts agree that the overwhelming numbers of Palestinian casualties are indeed civilians. This has been a constant throughout the conflict, for which Israel has faced widespread international criticism.
