Washington.- The United States has spent a record of at least $17.9 billion on military aid to Israel since the war in Gaza began and led to an escalation of the conflict across the Middle East, according to a report by the Israel War Costs project. Brown University, published this Monday one year after the attacks by the Palestinian armed group Hamas against Israel.
An additional $4.86 billion has been allocated to escalating U.S. military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, researchers said. That includes the costs of a Navy-led campaign to quell attacks on commercial shipping by Yemen’s Houthis, allied with Hamas and backed by Iran.
The report – completed before Israel opened a second front, this time against the political-paramilitary group Hezbollah, also backed by Iran, in Lebanon in late September – is one of the first accounts of the estimated costs of the United States, while the Government of President Joe Biden supports Israel in its conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and seeks to contain the hostilities of armed groups allied with Iran in the region. The financial cost comes on top of the human cost: Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel a year ago and took about 250 hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has claimed the lives of nearly 42,000 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
At least 1,400 people in Lebanon, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed since Israel expanded its attacks in that country in late September.
The financial costs were calculated by Linda J. Bilmes, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government who has assessed the total costs of American wars since the September 11, 2001, attacks, and her fellow researchers William D. Hartung and Stephen Semler. Among other data, it stands out that Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid in history, with $251.2 billion adjusted for inflation since 1959, according to the report. Still, the $17.9 billion spent since October 7, 2023 in inflation-adjusted dollars is by far the largest amount of military aid sent to Israel in a year. Much of the American weapons delivered in the year were munitions, from artillery shells to 2,000-pound bunker busters and precision-guided bombs. Expenses range from $4 billion to replace Israel’s Iron Dome and Sling missile defense systems to cash for rifles and jet fuel, according to the study.
Biden and Harris condemn ‘horror’ of October 7
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, this Monday regretted the attack by Hamas against Israel a year ago, while deploring the civilian victims in Gaza.
“Let us witness the unspeakable brutality of the October 7 attacks” last year, Biden said. Harris added that he “will never forget the horror” of that day, when members of Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel that killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages. “I am devastated by the loss and pain of the Israeli people,” the candidate and current Vice President said in a statement. In her statement, Harris also said she was “heartbroken by the amount of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year.” Biden indicated for his part that October 7 will also be remembered “as a black day for the Palestinian people due to the conflict that Hamas unleashed.” “Too many civilians have suffered too much during this year of conflict,” he added. In their remarks, Biden and Harris underscored their commitment to the US military alliance with Israel.
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