The Trump administration is planning a $2.8 billion munitions package for Israel that would include 40,000 two-thousand-pound bombs — 20,000 Mk84s and 20,000 BLU-117s — according to two U.S. officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke on condition of anonymity because the package is not yet final. Congress has been informally notified. Most of the purchase would be financed through Foreign Military Financing, under which U.S. funds are provided to Israel to buy American-made weapons. Public reporting on the informal notice has not named manufacturers or a delivery schedule for this package.

The Washington Post, citing a U.S. official, called the pending transfer the largest single sale of the munition in recent years and reported that it would also include 20,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads; other accounts of the same plan list the Mk84 and BLU-117 totals and do not match that penetrator figure.

Biden’s Rafah Pause And Trump’s Early Release

In May 2024, the Biden administration paused a shipment that included 1,800 of the two-thousand-pound bombs over concerns about civilian harm if Israel pressed a major assault on Rafah, where more than a million people were sheltering. On Jan. 25, 2025, Trump ordered that hold lifted — an early second-term act — saying Israel had paid for the munitions and they had been waiting in storage.

Mk84 and BLU-117 bombs are general-purpose two-thousand-pound munitions used as free-fall bomb bodies; guidance kits can be added separately. Their wide blast effects in dense urban fighting made them central to the 2024 supply fight. Experts analyzing strike footage and fragments have assessed that U.S.-made heavy bombs were used in Gaza against Hamas tunnel networks and in populated areas. Israel has released few public details on bomb types employed.

The Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel’s offensive has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians. Separately, Israeli strikes have continued after the October ceasefire, which Israel describes as responses to militant fire and ceasefire violations.

How The 2025 Sale Overlaps This Notification

On Feb. 28, 2025, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of an emergency Foreign Military Sale of munitions valued at $2.04 billion: 35,529 MK 84 or BLU-117 general-purpose bomb bodies, or a mix of both, plus 4,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads, with related support. Deliveries were estimated to begin in 2026 — so those bombs are due to arrive as this new $2.8 billion package is being informally notified. Prime contractors on that 2025 sale were General Dynamics in Garland, Texas; Ellwood National Forge Company in Irvine, Pennsylvania; and McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Oklahoma. The administration waived normal congressional review under an emergency determination.

In January 2026 it approved further arms sales to Israel totaling $6.67 billion. The new plan remains short of formal notification and final approval; informal notice to committees that weigh major sales does not complete the transfer or start a public delivery clock.

Midterm Politics And Alliance Strain

A Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters conducted June 18–22, 2026, and released June 24 found that 48 percent said the United States is too supportive of Israel — a new high since the question was first asked in January 2017 — including 66 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of independents and 20 percent of Republicans. That Democratic gap makes a large heavy-bomb notification a Hill litmus test weeks before the midterms, forcing Democrats to weigh alliance politics against a voter base that has shifted sharply on Israel since 2017.

The package also lands amid friction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that has not broken the munitions pipeline. On Aug. 9, Netanyahu rejected a U.S.-backed 15-point Gaza roadmap from Trump’s Board of Peace, saying the IDF would not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed — rejecting the plan’s phased, reciprocal track. In mid-August, Jared Kushner held a roughly three-to-four-hour meeting with Netanyahu that produced no breakthrough on sequencing; Israel has continued strikes in Gaza. Separate U.S. irritation has flared over West Bank settler politics and operations linked to Lebanon and the wider Iran confrontation, even as Washington moves another multi-billion-dollar bomb package toward Congress.