US President Donald Trump's administration has asked congressional leaders to approve new transfers of roughly $1 billion worth of bombs and other military hardware to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The planned weapons sales include 4,700 thousand-pound bombs, worth more than $700 million, and armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar Inc., worth more than $300 million, the report added.
The engineering equipment manufacturer could face criticism from progressive members of Congress due to "Israel's past use of them to demolish Palestinian homes," the report claimed.
Trump had previously lifted a hold on 2,000-pound bombs that was imposed by the previous Biden administration, and the US president also said that he wouldn't withhold any future weapons shipments to Israel.
“They paid for them, and they have been waiting for them for a long time,” the Wall Street Journal quoted him last week as he was aboard Air Force One.
Request made during Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to DC
The request by the Trump administration comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the US capital and will meet with Trump on Tuesday to discuss the fragile ceasefire and hostage deal with the Hamas terrorist organization.
The Wall Street Journal also added that Netanyahu and other Israeli officials would likely pressure the US president with another set of weapons transfers worth more than $8 billion that was requested by the previous administration.
This separate set of arms included new artillery rounds, missiles, and bombs.
Some lawmakers from the Democratic Party were able to hold off on the sale before the Biden administration finished its term, the report quoted a congressional official as saying.