Israel's Destruction of Gaza Over Last 2 Years 'Would Not Have Been Possible' Without $21.7 Billion From US

Tuesday marked two years since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,100 people and provoked the Israeli military's slaughter of over 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and a new report provides an accounting of the United States' support for the latter—support that made possible the mass destruction and killing that Israel continues to carry out across Gaza, as one analyst said.

"The devastating damage the current Israeli government has done to Gaza and its people would not have been possible without US financing, US-supplied weapons, and US assistance with spare parts and maintenance,” said Bill Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of a new report published by the organization along with the Costs of War Project at Brown University.

The report—published alongside another analysis that details the human toll of Israel's US-backed bombardment of Gaza—finds that the Biden and Trump administrations provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.

Over the same period, the US has also spent at least $9.65 billion on military operations in Yemen, Iran, and the wider region.

In the first year of the war, when President Joe Biden was in office, the US provided $17.9 billion. Another $3.8 billion has been sent to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October 2024. Some of the military aid that's been allocated to Israel is set to be supplied in the coming years.

The Costs of War Project emphasized that there are also billions of dollars in arms sales agreements that are set to be paid for in the years to come and are not included in the figure.

The Biden and Trump administrations have financed the IDF even as Israeli officials have spelled out their intention of killing civilians as well as Hamas combatants—and as Israeli soldiers have said they've been directed to target civilians. Their funding of Israel's military has also been in violation of US laws including Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits the US from transferring weapons or military aid to countries that block humanitarian assistance, as Israel has done since October 2023.

As the US has sent more than $8 billion in military financing, $725 million in "offshore procurement" to support Israel's own arms industry, $4.4 billion in weapons, $801 million in ammunition procurement, and more to the IDF, the near-total blockade on humanitarian aid had pushed Gaza into a famine.

More than half a million people in the Gaza Strip were facing "catastrophic conditions characterized by starvation, destitution, and death" in August when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared that famine had taken hold in the exclave.

"Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs."

At least 453 people, including 150 children have starved to death in Gaza since Israel first began blocking humanitarian aid, with many dying in recent weeks.

At least 67,173 Palestinians have also been killed and 169,780 have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians. Out of the approximately 2.2 million people who were living in Gaza in July 2023, more than 10% have either been killed or injured. The Costs of War Project said that while some supporters in Israel have claimed the Ministry of Health's numbers are an "exaggeration"—including Biden in the first weeks of the war—"they are likely an undercount."

Another report released Tuesday by Neta Crawford, co-founder and strategic adviser at the Costs of War Project, detailed The Human Toll of the Gaza War, including:

• 1,048 people who have been killed and 10,320 people who have been injured by "direct violence" in the West Bank;
• The forced displacement of approximately 90% of Gaza's population;
• The killing of at least 554 aid workers;
• The killing of 248 journalists, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office;
• Bombings of hospitals such as Nasser Hospital, the only remaining healthcare center in southern Gaza, where 20 people including five journalists were killed on August 25;
• The killing of more than 18,000 children under the age of 18;
• The destruction of 90% of housing units and at least 78% of all buildings and structures;
• The creation of the world's "largest orphan crisis," with at least 39,000 children having lost one or both parents; and
• The creation of the world's largest population of child amputees, with many having lost limbs and had surgeries "without even anesthesia," as UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this year.

"For well over a decade, the Costs of War Project has shed light on the costs of the so-called US 'War on Terror'; now we’re examining the devastating costs of US military spending and operations in the post-October 7 wars—which in the case of Gaza, many experts call a genocide,” said Stephanie Savell, director of the Costs of War Project. “Our research highlights numbers, but we must never lose sight of this key fact: What we’re talking about is human suffering. This research shows that the suffering is unthinkably vast."

Savell said the group's aim is for its research to "inform efforts to stop the mass killing and displacement, move beyond the war paradigm, and explore true solutions towards peace.”

The reports were released as Hamas and Israel began the latest indirect peace talks in Egypt, with US representatives expected to join the negotiations in the coming hours. Hamas and Israel have both expressed willingness to move forward with the release of Israelis and Palestinians who have been held captive and imprisoned, a key point in a peace plan proposed by President Donald Trump last week. Since the plan was announced and Trump called on Israel to halt its bombing of Gaza, the IDF has continued attacking parts of the exclave, killing at least 104 people.

Despite Israel's dependence on the US for military aid, said Hartung, since October 2023, "neither former President Joe Biden nor current President Donald Trump have used Israel's reliance on US weapons as a tool to pressure Tel Aviv to change its conduct.”

To be effective, said the report released Tuesday, "any U.S. government effort to impede Israel’s military operations in Gaza and beyond must include a ban on new sales, a suspension of arms in the pipeline that have been committed but are yet to be delivered, and a cut off of spare parts and support for the maintenance of Israeli weapons systems already in use."

"Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs," the report reads. "An increasing share of Israel’s arsenal would be down for maintenance without US government or US contractor mechanics and spare parts. In addition, Israel’s government could not have built a military of its current size and sophistication without US financial backing."

"Thus far," it adds, "the US government has not acted to stop the killing by cutting off military aid."