US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7

US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7
Much of the US weapons delivered in the year were munitions, from artillery shells to 2,000-pound bunker-busters and precision-guided bombs. (FILE/AFP)
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Updated 07 October 2024
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US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7

US spends a record $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since last Oct. 7
  • An additional $4.86 billion has gone into stepped-up US military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks

WASHINGTON: The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University’s Costs of War project, released Monday on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.
An additional $4.86 billion has gone into stepped-up US military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, researchers said in findings first provided to The Associated Press. That includes the costs of a Navy-led campaign to quell strikes on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthis, who are carrying them out in solidarity with the fellow Iranian-backed group Hamas.
The report — completed before Israel opened a second front, this one against Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, in late September — is one of the first tallies of estimated US costs as the Biden administration backs Israel in its conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and seeks to contain hostilities by Iran-allied armed groups in the region.
The financial toll is on top of the cost in human lives: Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel a year ago and took others hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
At least 1,400 people in Lebanon, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed since Israel greatly expanded its strikes in that country in late September.
The financial costs were calculated by Linda J. Bilmes, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, who has assessed the full costs of US wars since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and fellow researchers William D. Hartung and Stephen Semler.
Here’s a look at where some of the US taxpayer money went:
Record military aid to Israel
Israel — a protege of the United States since its 1948 founding — is the biggest recipient of US military aid in history, getting $251.2 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1959, the report says.
Even so, the $17.9 billion spent since Oct. 7, 2023, in inflation-adjusted dollars, is by far the most military aid sent to Israel in one year. The US committed to providing billions in military assistance to Israel and Egypt each year when they signed their 1979 US-brokered peace treaty, and an agreement since the Obama administration set the annual amount for Israel at $3.8 billion through 2028.
The US aid since the Gaza war started includes military financing, arms sales, at least $4.4 billion in drawdowns from US stockpiles and hand-me-downs of used equipment.
Much of the US weapons delivered in the year were munitions, from artillery shells to 2,000-pound bunker-busters and precision-guided bombs.
Expenditures range from $4 billion to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems to cash for rifles and jet fuel, the study says.
Unlike the United States’ publicly documented military aid to Ukraine, it was impossible to get the full details of what the US has shipped Israel since last Oct. 7, so the $17.9 billion for the year is a partial figure, the researchers said.
They cited Biden administration “efforts to hide the full amounts of aid and types of systems through bureaucratic maneuvering.”
Funding for the key US ally during a war that has exacted a heavy toll on civilians has divided Americans during the presidential campaign. But support for Israel has long carried weight in US politics, and Biden said Friday that “no administration has helped Israel more than I have.”
US military operations in the Middle East
The Biden administration has bolstered its military strength in the region since the war in Gaza started, aiming to deter and respond to any attacks on Israeli and American forces.
Those additional operations cost at least $4.86 billion, the report said, not including beefed-up US military aid to Egypt and other partners in the region.
The US had 34,000 forces in the Middle East the day that Hamas broke through Israeli barricades around Gaza to attack. That number rose to about 50,000 in August when two aircraft carriers were in the region, aiming to discourage retaliation after a strike attributed to Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. The total is now around 43,000.
The number of US vessels and aircraft deployed — aircraft carrier strike groups, an amphibious ready group, fighter squadrons, and air defense batteries — in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has varied during the year.
The Pentagon has said another aircraft carrier strike group is headed to Europe very soon and that could increase the troop total again if two carriers are again in the region at the same time.
The fight against the Houthis
The US military has deployed since the start of the war to try to counter escalated strikes by the Houthis, an armed faction that controls Yemen’s capital and northern areas, and has been firing on merchant ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza. The researchers called the $4.86 billion cost to the US an “unexpectedly complicated and asymmetrically expensive challenge.”
Houthis have kept launching attacks on ships traversing the critical trade route, drawing US strikes on launch sites and other targets. The campaign has become the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II.
“The US has deployed multiple aircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers and expensive multimillion-dollar missiles against cheap Iranian-made Houthi drones that cost $2,000,” the authors said.
Just Friday, the US military struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen, going after weapons systems, bases and other equipment, officials said.
The researchers’ calculations included at least $55 million in additional combat pay from the intensified operations in the region.


UN says Gaza polio vaccination campaign complete

UN says Gaza polio vaccination campaign complete
Updated 55 min 54 sec ago
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UN says Gaza polio vaccination campaign complete

UN says Gaza polio vaccination campaign complete
  • The second round of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip was completed Tuesday, with an overall 556,774 children under the age of 10 being vaccinated
  • An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 children are stuck in “inaccessible areas” in the north and “remain unvaccinated”

JERUSALEM: The UN said Wednesday its Gaza child polio vaccination drive was complete, with more than half a million children vaccinated despite the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Palestinian territory.
The World Health Organization and the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF launched a second round of vaccinations in northern Gaza on Saturday after Israeli bombing halted an earlier attempt to do so.
“The second round of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip was completed yesterday (Tuesday), with an overall 556,774 children under the age of 10 being vaccinated with a second dose,” said a joint statement.
It “is a remarkable achievement given the extremely difficult circumstances the campaign was executed under.”
Israel’s military has pounded northern Gaza for weeks in a major offensive it says is aimed at stopping Hamas militants from regrouping.
An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 children are stuck in “inaccessible areas” in the north and “remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to the poliovirus,” the UN organizations said.
The vaccination campaign had been a “success,” according to a statement Wednesday from COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that manages civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.
The drive began on September 1 with a successful first round, after the besieged territory confirmed its first polio case in 25 years.
Typically spread through sewage and contaminated water, poliovirus is highly infectious.
It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal, mainly affecting children aged under five.
The vaccination campaign was managed primarily by UN agencies including the WHO, UNICEF and UNRWA — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Last month Israel’s parliament adopted a law banning UNRWA’s activities on Israeli territory.
The aid agency remains “the largest primary health care provider in the Gaza Strip,” according to Louise Wateridge, UNRWA’s senior emergency officer.
The WHO said Saturday four children were among six people wounded in a strike on a polio vaccination center in northern Gaza.
It was unclear who carried out the attack.
The UN agencies on Wednesday again called for a ceasefire.
“Humanitarian pauses... must be systematically applied beyond the polio emergency response efforts to other health and humanitarian interventions to respond to dire needs,” they said.


Hezbollah says attacked Israel naval base with drones, missiles

Hezbollah says attacked Israel naval base with drones, missiles
Updated 06 November 2024
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Hezbollah says attacked Israel naval base with drones, missiles

Hezbollah says attacked Israel naval base with drones, missiles
  • Hezbollah fighters “targeted the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa,” the group said

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said it targeted a naval base near the Israeli city of Haifa with drones and missiles Wednesday, the fourth attack on the base in as many weeks.
Hezbollah fighters “targeted the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa with a salvo of high-quality missiles and a squadron of attack drones,” the group said in a statement.


Israel’s Netanyahu discusses ‘Iranian threat’ with Trump

Israel’s Netanyahu discusses ‘Iranian threat’ with Trump
Updated 27 min 30 sec ago
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Israel’s Netanyahu discusses ‘Iranian threat’ with Trump

Israel’s Netanyahu discusses ‘Iranian threat’ with Trump
  • Trump and Netanyahu agreed to work together for Israel’s security

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the “Iranian threat” in a call with US president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon show no sign of easing.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement the Israeli premier “congratulated Trump on his election victory, and the two agreed to work together for Israel’s security.
“The two also discussed the Iranian threat,” it added.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, said Wednesday tens of thousands of its militants were ready to fight Israel, adding that the US election result would have no bearing on the war in Lebanon.
Its leader warned that nowhere in Israel would be “off-limits” to attacks, as the Israeli military said about 120 projectiles were fired across the border on Wednesday.
Israel’s military also said a missile was fired into southern Israel from central Gaza, where it has battled the Tehran-backed Hamas group since Palestinian militants launched a deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hezbollah’s main bastion of south Beirut came under Israeli air attack after a warning to evacuate.
Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since late September, when the Israeli military widened the focus of its Gaza war to securing its northern border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah began low-intensity cross-border attacks on Israel last year, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas after the October 7 attack.
Efforts to end the war in Gaza sparked by the Hamas attack have yet to bear fruit, and the war in Lebanon has killed at least 3,050 people since October 2023, the health ministry said Wednesday.
In a televised speech marking 40 days since his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike, new Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said: “We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight.
His address aired after Trump’s victory was announced, but had been recorded earlier.
Qassem said whoever won the election would have no impact on any possible ceasefire deal for Lebanon.
“What will stop this... war is the battlefield” he said, citing fighting in south Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah announced Wednesday it had Iran-made Fatah 110 missiles, a weapon with a 300-kilometer range that military expert Riad Kahwaji described as the group’s “most accurate.”
It also said it targeted a naval base near the Haifa in Israel with drones and missiles, the fourth attack on the base in as many weeks.
Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted a military base near Israel’s main airport close to commercial hub Tel Aviv, but Israel’s Airports Authority said operations were not disrupted.


Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
An AFP correspondent in the eastern city of Baalbek reported intense strikes in and around the city.
Israel is “betting on prolonging the war so it becomes a war of attrition... We are ready,” Qassem said in his second speech since being named Hezbollah secretary-general last week.
He also called for Lebanese sovereignty to be safeguarded in any truce talks.
Qassem demanded explanations from the Lebanese army after Israeli commandos seized a man from north Lebanon on Saturday who they said was a senior Hezbollah operative.
He said the operation was “a great offense to Lebanon” and a “violation” of its sovereignty.
On Tuesday, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP Israeli commandos used a speedboat equipped with advanced devices capable of jamming UN peacekeepers’ radar in the operation, according to a preliminary probe.
The UN Maritime Task Force has helped Lebanon’s military to monitor territorial waters and prevent the entry of arms or related material by sea since 2006, according to the mission’s website.


In Gaza, where the 13-month war has had a devastating impact, people were desperate for a solution and voiced the hope Trump might offer one.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry the United Nations considers reliable.
“We were displaced, killed... there’s nothing left for us, we want peace,” said 60-year-old Mamdouh Al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia.
“I hope Trump finds a solution, we need someone strong like Trump to end the war and save us...”
Netanyahu earlier feted Trump’s “huge victory” as “history’s greatest comeback.”
The United States is Israel’s top ally and military backer, and the election came at a critical time for the Middle East.
While maintaining the steady flow of aid to Israel, US President Joe Biden’s administration had for months piled pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a truce.
Analysts say Netanyahu wanted a Trump return, given their longstanding personal friendship and the American’s hawkishness on Israel’s arch-foe Iran.


Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
Updated 06 November 2024
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Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says

Lebanon files complaint against Israel at UN labor body over deadly pager explosions, minister says
  • Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization
  • Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported

GENEVA: A Lebanese government minister said Wednesday his country was filing a complaint against Israel at the UN’s labor organization over the string of deadly attacks involving exploding pagers, saying workers were among those killed and injured.
The explosions in mid-September were widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied involvement. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including two children, wounded more than 3,000 and deeply unsettled even Lebanese who have no Hezbollah affiliation.
Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram said he traveled to Geneva to formally file the complaint against Israel at the International Labor Organization, a sprawling UN agency that brings together governments, businesses and workers.
Bayram said the casualty count was even higher than first reported, saying “more than 4,000 civilians fell — between martyrs and injured and maimed — in a few minutes by this attack.”
“This method of warfare and conflicts may open the way for many who are evading international humanitarian law to adopt this method of warfare,” the minister told reporters at the UN compound in Geneva.
“It’s a very dangerous precedent, if not condemned,” he said. “We are in a situation where ordinary objects — objects used in daily life — become dangerous and lethal.”
Speaking in Arabic, Bayram insisted that ILO conventions guarantee the safety and security of workers, who “were in their workplace and had their pagers or walkies-talkies exploding all of a sudden,” according to an interpreter.
“I do not know where the outcome (of the complaint) will go, but at least we raised our voices to say and warn against this dangerous approach that strikes at human relations and leads to more conflicts,” he added.
An ILO spokeswoman said she was not immediately aware of the complaint or what redress might be possible through it.


Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel

Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel
Updated 06 November 2024
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Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel

Hezbollah says tens of thousands of fighters ready to battle Israel
  • The Iran-backed group’s leader also warned that nowhere in Israel would be “off-limits” to attacks
  • “What will stop this... war is the battlefield” he said, citing fighting in south Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel

BEIRUT: Hezbollah said Wednesday that tens of thousands of its militants were ready to fight Israel, adding that the US election result would have no bearing on the war in Lebanon.
The Iran-backed group’s leader also warned that nowhere in Israel would be “off-limits” to attacks, as the Israeli military said about 120 projectiles had been fired across the border on Wednesday.
The Israeli military struck Hezbollah’s main bastion of south Beirut after issuing an evacuation warning.
Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since late September, when the Israeli military widened the focus of its war in Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon.
Hezbollah began launching low-intensity cross-border attacks on Israel last year, in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack.
Efforts to end the war in Gaza that was sparked by the Hamas attack have yet to bear fruit, and the war in Lebanon has killed nearly 2,000 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
“We have tens of thousands of trained resistance combatants” ready to fight, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech marking 40 days since his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike.
The address was aired after Donald Trump’s victory in the US election was announced, but had been recorded earlier.
He said the result in the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris would have no impact on any possible ceasefire deal for Lebanon.
“We don’t base our expectations for a halt of the aggression on political developments,” he said.
“Whether Harris wins or Trump wins, it means nothing to us.
“What will stop this... war is the battlefield” he said, citing fighting in south Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted a military base near Israel’s main airport close to commercial hub Tel Aviv, an attack that Israel’s Airports Authority said did not disrupt operations.
Earlier Wednesday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
An AFP correspondent in the eastern city of Baalbek reported intense strikes in and around the city.
The speech was Qassem’s second since he was named Hezbollah secretary-general last week.
Israel is “betting on prolonging the war so it becomes a war of attrition... We are ready,” he said.
He also called for Lebanese sovereignty to be safeguarded in any truce talks.
Qassem demanded explanations from the Lebanese army after Israeli naval commandos seized a man from north Lebanon on Saturday who they said was a senior Hezbollah operative.
He said the operation was “a great offense to Lebanon” and a “violation” of its sovereignty.
On Tuesday, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP that Israeli commandos used a speedboat equipped with advanced devices capable of jamming UN peacekeepers’ radars for the operation, according to a preliminary probe.
The UN Maritime Task Force has helped the Lebanese military to monitor territorial waters and prevent the entry of arms or related material by sea since 2006, according to the mission’s website.
In Gaza, where the 13-month war has had a devastating impact, people were desperate for a solution and voiced hope Trump might be able to offer one.
Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in 1,206 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,391 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry the United Nations considers reliable.
“We were displaced, killed... there’s nothing left for us, we want peace,” said Mamdouh Al-Jadba, who was displaced to Gaza City from Jabalia.
“I hope Trump finds a solution, we need someone strong like Trump to end the war and save us, enough, God, this is enough,” the 60-year-old told AFP.
Umm Ahmed Harb, from the Al-Shaaf area east of Gaza City, was also counting on Trump to “stand by our side” and end the territory’s suffering.
“God willing the war will end, not for our sake but for the sake of our young children who are innocent,” she told AFP.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his part feted Trump’s return as “history’s greatest comeback.”
“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.
The United States is Israel’s top ally and military backer, and the election came at a critical time for the Middle East.
While maintaining the steady flow of aid to Israel, US President Joe Biden’s administration had for months piled pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a truce.
Analysts say Netanyahu had been hoping for a Trump return, given their longstanding personal friendship as well as the former president’s hawkishness on Israel’s arch-foe Iran.