Three Years of Gaza Conflict: US Military Aid to Israel Remains Unchanged

Washington, DC – Three years after the war in Gaza erupted, the US military support policy toward Israel has barely changed. From the administration of former President Joe Biden to that of current President Donald Trump, Washington has maintained nearly unconditional military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023, even as the region spiraled into a broader conflict, including a US-Israel war with Iran.

American aid has continued even during periods when the administration offered mild criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military campaign in Gaza, amid repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement reached last year and obstacles to a more lasting peace in the Palestinian territory and the wider region.

To date, at least 74,243 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel killed at least 1,139 people. At least 1,460 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the October 11, 2025 ceasefire took effect, as Israel continues to expand the areas under its control.

"The key point is that under both the Biden and Trump administrations, the US has continued to provide unconditional support to Israel — financial, weapons transfers, and other forms such as diplomatic support," said Josh Paul, a former US State Department official who now runs the advocacy firm A New Policy.

"That's before you even get to the cost of America's wars in the region, which largely stem from our support for Israel and Israel's actions," he said.

Military aid

For decades, the US has given Israel a level of military support and preferential access to American weapons unmatched by any other country. Washington has provided nearly $300 billion in aid since Israel's founding in 1948, adjusted for inflation, more than to any other nation.

Washington has repeatedly institutionalized its support for Israel, most notably through a 2008 law requiring the US government to ensure Israel maintains a so-called Qualitative Military Edge (QME) over its neighbors.

As a result, Israel's military remains tightly bound to the US government and to American-made weapons, which underpin its air force, some of its most destructive munitions, tanks and other military vehicles, as well as the Iron Dome, David's Sling and Iron Beam defense systems.

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have repeatedly linked US-made weapons to the killing of civilians in Gaza and the wider region, though Israel bars independent monitors from the Palestinian territory.

"Because Gaza is a genocide, and the US has supplied so many weapons, it's virtually impossible to deny that the US bears responsibility," William Hartung, a defense analyst who has studied US-Israel aid, told Al Jazeera.

Since October 7, 2023, the US has provided at least $25.5 billion in budget appropriations for Israel, money drawn directly from the government treasury funded by American taxpayers.

The most direct form of US military support is the budget appropriations for Israel, worth $3.8 billion a year under a 10-year memorandum of understanding signed by former President Barack Obama's administration in 2016.

That figure includes $3.8 billion a year appropriated in fiscal years 2024, 2025 and 2026. There was also a large $14.1 billion supplemental security package that Congress passed and signed into law in April 2024.

The funding consists mainly of Foreign Military Financing, which pays for the transfer of American-made weapons and other services, and to a lesser extent "offshore procurement," which funds Israel's development of its domestic arms industry.

Other parts of the funding are earmarked specifically to replenish existing weapons stockpiles and maintain Israel's defense systems.

Israel also has access to the War Reserve Stockpile, a program that stores some US weapons on Israeli soil, allowing rapid access once Washington approves.

Weapons sales

Direct US government appropriations run parallel to weapons sales to Israel. Those deals must be approved by the State Department and notified to Congress, and can be paid for with US military aid or other funding sources.

However, according to Hartung, most of the deals are paid for with US aid.

The weapons sales process can take years to deliver, depending on the availability and complexity of the equipment, binding the US and Israeli militaries together long after the initial agreement.

"It's a timeline where what's approved today causes harm later, and what's causing harm now was approved years ago," he said.

According to an Al Jazeera analysis based on State Department notifications to Congress, the US has so far approved at least $33.16 billion in weapons transfers to Israel since October 7, 2023.

Since Israel's military campaign began, the State Department under both the Biden and Trump administrations has also repeatedly declared national security emergencies regarding support for Israel — a rarely used legal measure that allows the administration to bypass some congressional oversight.

Deals approved by the State Department since October 7, 2023 include thousands of 120mm tank rounds greenlit in December 2023 and again in August 2024, F-15 fighter jets and spare parts worth $18.82 billion approved in August 2024, and a $7.4 billion package of bombs, guidance kits, fuses and Hellfire missiles approved shortly after Trump took office in 2025.

At that time, Trump lifted Biden's hold on a shipment of 2,000 2,000-pound (900kg) bombs previously approved for Israel.

Human rights groups argue that the wide blast radius of such bombs, which can reach 0.4km, causes widespread civilian devastation. A 2024 study found Israel dropped nearly 600 2,000-pound bombs across densely populated Gaza between October 7 and October 23, 2023.

In September, US Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had paused a $2.8 billion transfer of 40,000 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, saying he had not received assurances that "the weapons will be used by the Netanyahu administration in accordance with US law and with adequate civilian protection measures."

Diplomatic shield

Beyond weapons, three years after the war in Gaza began, the US also continues to provide Israel with a diplomatic shield.

Before the October 11, 2025 ceasefire, that support was most visible at the UN Security Council, where the US, as one of five permanent members, repeatedly vetoed resolutions calling for an end to the war.

In total, the US has vetoed six separate Gaza-related resolutions, most recently in September 2025.

The US approach then shifted into a pressure campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Trump initially announced plans to sanction the court and those who work with it in a February 2025 executive order, accusing the ICC of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel."

The US has sanctioned a series of ICC officials, a UN rapporteur and several Palestinian human rights groups, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledging in July to accelerate a "whole-of-government" approach to dismantling the court.

Joyce Ajlouny, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, called the Trump administration's approach "an affront to all victims and survivors of war crimes and genocide."

Washington has also taken other steps to shield Israel from accountability. The law appropriating the latest military aid package bans any US funding for the independent commission established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate the occupied Palestinian territory. It also blocks US funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Growing US opposition

While the executive branch has shown little divergence in its unconditional support for Israel, the domestic political landscape in the US has shifted markedly over the past three years.

A New York Times/Siena poll in May found that about 68 percent of Democrats oppose providing additional economic and military aid to Israel, up from 45 percent three years earlier. A Gallup survey in February found that while 70 percent of Republicans sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians, that figure had fallen 10 percentage points from a year earlier.

Lawmakers in Congress increasingly reflect that dissatisfaction, though resolutions seeking to block weapons transfers have yet to reach the two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate needed to take effect.

"Years ago, even an amendment blocking sales to Israel was unthinkable," analyst Hartung said. "I think the trend is changing. But I mean, the killing is happening right now, so there's not much consolation unless we can actually stop it."

US Senator Bernie Sanders and lawmakers in the House have introduced bills to block weapons sales. A fact sheet compiled by Sanders' office in 2024 pointed to the use of US weapons, particularly 120mm tank rounds, in several high-profile killings of civilians in Gaza, including 5-year-old Hind Rajab in Gaza City, as well as the use of JDAM guided bombs in multiple Israeli airstrikes that caused mass casualties.

A bill to block the sale of military bulldozers passed the Senate with 40 votes in April 2024, hailed by some advocates as a historic turning point.

In September, 47 senators voted to advance a bill requiring the State Department to investigate US citizens killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank, which could lead to restrictions on military aid.

On the other side, pro-Israel US lawmakers have sought to formalize the entanglement of the US and Israeli militaries in the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). A version of the bill passed by the Republican-controlled House would promote US-Israel technology cooperation, potentially pumping billions of US dollars into Israel's defense industry and bypassing congressional oversight.

In essence, the provision is an effort to "move the defense relationship from the annual budget appropriations cycle into the deeper contracting machinery of the Defense Department," according to Paul of A New Policy, thereby sidestepping shifting public opinion.

"[A relationship] that is less transparent, less subject to political pressure and more deeply embedded in the US military-industrial complex," he said.