Axios has learned of the U.S. State Department's notification to Congress of arms sales to Israel

The U.S. State Department has made an unofficial notification to Congress about a possible $8 billion arms sale to Israel, Axios reported on November 4, citing a source.

"The State Department "unofficially" notified Congress about a possible $8 billion deal with Israel, which will include ammunition for fighter jets and attack helicopters, as well as artillery shells," the portal said in its material.

It is specified that this is likely to be the last arms sale approved by the current administration of US President Joe Biden. The contract will include the sale of air-to-air missiles AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM, artillery shells and Hellfire AGM-114 missiles, as well as small-diameter bombs and warheads with fuses for them.

According to the portal, this sale guarantees "long-term" security for Israel and will also help "deter Iranian aggression."

Earlier, on November 21, it was reported that the Senate of the U.S. Congress rejected three resolutions to ban arms sales to Israel totaling more than $20 billion, following a vote in the upper chamber. The author of the resolutions pointed to the violation of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.

Prior to that, on October 30, it was reported that representatives of the U.S. State Department for a week identified about 500 potential cases of harm to civilians during Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip using U.S. weapons, but took no further action on any of them.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian radical movement Hamas launched a massive barrage of rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, as well as invading border areas in the south and taking hostages. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.