US prepares $2.8bn weapons sale, funded by taxpayers, to Israel: Report - Middle East Eye

US taxpayers are set to foot the bill for a $2.8bn weapons package to Israel that includes 2,000-pound bombs, The Washington Post reported, citing a US official.

The deal would be the largest single US sale of the controversial munition in recent years.

The package prepared by the Trump administration includes 40,000 bombs that weigh 2,000 pounds each, including the MK-84s and BLU-117s.

Another 20,000 I-2000 Penetrator warheads will be sent as part of the deal, the official told The Post in an article published on Tuesday. The official, like others cited in the report, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military matters.

Among the most destructive munitions in western arsenals, the MK-84 can send metal fragments hundreds of metres from the point of impact and penetrate metal and thick concrete, while creating large craters. 

The proposed sale has been informally presented to congressional committees, potentially putting Democrats in a difficult position as growing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has placed a strain on the US-Israel relationship.

When asked about concerns over humanitarian implications, a senior administration official told The Post: “All foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process. We do not comment on pending sales.”

The Israeli embassy did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Journalists and political commentators slammed the deal online. Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson criticised the sale on X, writing: “There is no precedent for what the Trump administration is doing.

“Nor is there a justification. The government of Israel is not fighting World War Two, or even a war. It is engaged in periodic skirmishes with a guerrilla force in Lebanon, and it is working to exterminate an unarmed civilian population in Gaza. Neither front requires modern 2,000-pound bombs,” he said.

American journalist Glenn Greenwald called the deal part of Trump’s “debt” to Israeli-born US billionaire and prominent pro-Israel donor, Miriam Adelson.

“In case you're wondering when Trump's debt to Miriam Adelson and her Israeli cabal will finally be paid off, the answer is: never. The debt is eternal and limitless,” Greenwald wrote on X.

“And that's all separate from Trump's own personal and political reasons for his unyielding servitude to Israel."

In case you're wondering when Trump's debt to Miriam Adelson and her Israeli cabal will finally be paid off, the answer is: never. The debt is eternal and limitless. And that's all separate from Trump's own personal and political reasons for his unyielding servitude to Israel. https://t.co/flJShcniJB

The weapons package surpasses previous sales of weapons to Israel, including a $2.04bn sale in 2025 that bypassed the normal congressional review process.

Israel has used the 2,000-pound bombs with devastating consequences for civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon on hundreds of occasions. 

United Nations bodies, including the UN Commission of Inquiry, as well as international and Israeli human rights organisations, have concluded that Israeli authorities have committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, where over 73,000 people have been killed since the war on the enclave began in October 2023.