A State Department spokesperson said on Friday that the
department notified Congress on Thursday that the government intended to release
the billions of dollars of foreign military financing to Israel.
CNN
reported earlier on the release of this amount which comes from a US$14 billion
supplemental funding bill for Israel passed by the Congress in April.
Tensions in the Middle East have been mounting and many fear
a widening of Israel's war in Gaza that has already killed tens
of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.
There has been an increased risk of escalation into
a broader Middle East war after recent killings of Palestinian Islamist group
Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and of Hezbollah military
commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut allegedly by Israel.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian
conflict was triggered on October 07, 2023 when Hamas attacked
Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli
tallies.
The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel's
military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000
Palestinians (genocide) and also displacing nearly the entire population
of 2.3 million, causing humanitarian crisis.
