Report: US cargo flights carrying arms peaked in November, before declining in following months

Flights from the United States carrying armaments to Israel peaked in November then sharply decreased, according to a Haaretz report (Hebrew), which cited publicly available information on such flights.

According to flight data, 22 cargo flights arrived in October, then a surge of 47 arrived in November following Hamas’s devastating onslaught on October 7, most of them landing at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel.

Then, 37 arrived in December, 20 in January, eight in February, 11 in March, 17 in April, seven in May, and nine so far this month.

The report notes that the data does not include shipments that have arrived by sea, which include a greater amount of weapons than those that arrive by air.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly claimed last week that the US has been “withholding” weapons shipments and that there had been a “dramatic drop” in transfers.

The accusation made in a video statement infuriated Washington, which vociferously denied the assertion and insisted that it has only held one transfer of heavy bombs that President Joe Biden didn’t want the IDF using in the densely populated Palestinian city of Rafah.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the Biden administration announced separately Wednesday that progress had been made toward resolving what Jerusalem considers to be an insufficient flow of arms from the US to Israel.