Why Israel Wants More One-Ton Bombs From the U.S.

The Trump administration’s decision to send 60,000 powerful one-ton bombs to Israel as part of a $2.8 billion deal — one of the largest arms agreements ever — will allow Israel to replenish its supply of a munition it considers vital. The weapons became the focus of great tension between the Biden administration and Israel after one-ton bombs were widely used in densely populated areas of Gaza where Israel had steered civilians for their safety . With opposition to military assistance to Israel growing in Washington, such a huge sale of heavy bombs, paid for by the U.S. government, could be an effort by the administration to stock up the Israeli arsenal before political shifts make such shipments impossible, analysts said. The Israeli military pivoted toward the use of the one-ton bombs after the Hamas-led attack against southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, drastically changing its shopping list, U.S. government data show. In 2025, Israel bought nearly eight times as many one-ton bombs from the United States as it did from 2012 to 2015. Israel’s emphasis on buying and using some of the largest bombs currently made runs counter to that of most other modern militaries, which have been making their aerial munitions smaller and even more accurate in the hopes of limiting civilian casualties during combat. Israel has used a vast amount of the one-ton bombs in large part to target the tunnel network Hamas developed in Gaza for its fighters, weapons and command centers. Israeli officials have said that Hamas fighters intentionally embed themselves among civilians, forcing the Israeli military to risk killing civilians. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in . Want all of The Times? Subscribe .