Trump sends 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, weighs in on refugees

Stephanie Lai, Bloomberg News on Jan 25, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ended a Biden administration hold on supplying 2,000-pound bombs to Israel and called on Egypt and Jordan to accept more Palestinian refugees following the devastation of the conflict in Gaza.

The decision on the bombs is in line with Trump’s pledges on the campaign trail and since assuming the presidency to provide Israel with the resources it says it needs to end the conflict.

“We’ll release them today,” Trump told reporters on a flight back from a trip to the West Coast on Saturday. “They’ve been waiting for them for a long time, they’ve been in storage for a long time.”

When pressed on his reason for the decision, Trump said, “because they bought them.”

Under Biden, the U.S. paused delivery of about 3,500 bombs to Israel — including the 2,000-pound (900kg) explosives — in May in a bid to limit civilian casualties in the densely packed city of Rafah during Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

The move reflected frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war and marked the Biden administration’s most serious sign of displeasure, leading to a fraught moment in U.S.-Israeli relations.

The president on Saturday said he spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah, complementing him on his nation’s decades-long support for housing Palestinian refugees and called on him to “take on more” people displaced by the conflict in Gaza.

“I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess,” Trump said. “It’s a real mess.”

The U.S. president said he’ll be delivering a similar message to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday.

“I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million-and-a-half people. And we just clean up that whole thing.”

Trump has long touted his administration, dating back to his first term, as being in lockstep with Israel. Even so, his patience seemed to wane as early as March, when he called on Israel in an interview with Israel Hayom newspaper “to finish up your war. You have to finish it up, you got to get it done.”

Tensions between Trump and Netanyahu emerged following the 2020 presidential election, when the Israeli leader congratulated Biden on his victory even though Trump contested the results.

Nevertheless, the American president has been in contact with Netanyahu throughout the last year. He and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, participated in talks to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage deal during the presidential transition from the Biden administration.

While the deal was announced days before Trump’s inauguration, he has been quick to claim credit, including in a statement on Saturday on the latest prisoner swap involving four Israeli soldiers and about 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.