Three Years Into Gaza War, U.S. Has Sent Israel $25.5bn in Direct Aid, Approved $33bn More in Arms

Three years after Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel and Israel launched its offensive in Gaza, the paperwork shows no interruption in US military support.

Since October 7, 2023, the United States has provided at least $25.5bn in direct government appropriations to Israel, according to figures drawn from federal budget data. That includes $3.8bn a year across fiscal years 2024, 2025 and 2026 under the 10-year memorandum of understanding signed by the Obama administration in 2016, plus a $14.1bn supplemental security package Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in April 2024.

A separate analysis of State Department notices to Congress, the filings required before arms sales to foreign governments proceed, shows at least $33.16bn in weapons transfers approved to Israel over the same period. Sales can take years to deliver depending on what is being bought, binding the two militaries into supply relationships that outlast any single administration or ceasefire.

The $3.8bn annual tranche is mostly Foreign Military Financing, funds that pay for US-made weapons and services, with a smaller share going to offshore procurement that builds up Israel's own arms industry. Other money is earmarked specifically to replenish munitions stockpiles and sustain Israel's Iron Dome, David's Sling and Iron Beam air defense systems. Israel also holds access to a US War Reserves Stockpile inside the country, weapons pre-positioned for rapid release once Washington signs off.

The legal architecture behind this flow predates the current war. A 2008 law obligates the US government to ensure Israel maintains a "Qualitative Military Edge" over its neighbors, a standard that has shaped decades of preferential access to American weapons systems, aircraft, tanks and munitions.

"The bottom line is that under both the Biden administration and the Trump administration, the US has continued to provide unconditional support for Israel, both in terms of finances, arms transfers and other forms, such as diplomatic support," said Josh Paul, a former State Department official who now runs the lobbying firm A New Policy.

Paul added that the toll extends beyond direct aid figures once the costs of wider US military entanglement in the region, including the war with Iran, are counted.

Defense analyst William Hartung, who tracks US-Israel military assistance, told Al Jazeera the scale of supply creates direct accountability. Rights groups including Amnesty International have linked US-made weapons to civilian deaths in Gaza, though Israel has continued to block independent monitors from entering the territory to verify such findings on the ground.

Taken together, the appropriations and arms-sale totals describe a pipeline that has not slowed through changes in the White House, periods of mild public criticism from Washington of Israeli conduct, or repeated reported violations of the ceasefire that took effect in October 2025. The money and the hardware have kept moving on schedule.