US' Secret Weapon Stockpile In Israel Under Scrutiny
There are secret and closely guarded warehouses in Israel that contains weapons worth billions of dollars and owned by the US government, said The Guardian. The exact locations of the warehouses are classified. The pre-positioned stockpile of weapon is known as the War Reserve Stocks for Allies-Israel (WRSA-I). the contents of the stockpile are not publicly disclosed.
The weapon stockpile was first established in 1980s to allow the US to rapidly supply to its forces in the case of future Middle East conflicts. Though it was only established only for the use of US, Israel was granted permission use the weaponries over time in certain situations. According to report, Israel is now receiving weapons from the stockpile in significant quantities for using it on Gaza, and the transparency of the transfer of the munitions are less transparent.
Multiple former US officials familiar with Wahington’s security assistance to Israel told The Guardian about how the stockpile is allowing expedited arms transfer to the Israeli occupation force, and how the US warehouse in Israel can shield the movements of US weapons for Israeli use from public and congressional eyes. One of the former officials of Pentagon said, “officially it is US equipment for US use…but on the other hand, in an emergency, who is to say we are not going to give them the keys to the warehouse?”.
Since Hamas unleashed the “unprecedented attack” on Israel on October 7th, Israel has been bombing Gaza indiscriminately, and the genocidal attack from the occupation force has killed more than 21,000 Palestinians so far. According to local authorities, the death toll and horrific scenes coming from the besieged Gaza Strip put US under scrutiny about the quantities and categories of bombs are being provided to Israel through the secret pre-positioned stockpile.
Lawmakers of Washington has raised concerns over the proposal from the White House seeking to relax the rules on the kinds of weapons to be placed in the stockpile, spending caps on its replenishment and to allow Pentagon greater flexibility to make transfer from the arsenal, said The Guardian.
Josh Paul, who resigned from US state department recently, protesting America’s relentless lethal assistance to Israel said the proposal was part of Biden administration to find ways to supply for Israel. He said, “there was a press from the White House to say essentially we need to figure out every possible (legal) authority that we could give Israel that would get it weapons as fast as possible”.
A former US military official said during a candid talk that most of the stockpiles are “dumb munitions (those without sophisticated guidance system)” that include “thousands of iron bombs’ that are simply dropped from aircraft so gravity can do its work”. The report said Israel has extensively used the dumb bombs such as M117 on Gaza. CNN reported that Israel has used about 40-45 percent of munitions used by Israel on Gaza were unguided.
