The US State Department has approved the potential sale of nearly $3 billion worth of bombs, demolition kits and other weaponry to Israel, Reuters quotes the Pentagon as saying.

The prospective weapons sales were notified to Congress yesterday afternoon on an emergency basis. That process sidesteps a long-standing practice of giving the chairs and ranking members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees the opportunity to review the sale and ask for more information before making a formal notification to Congress.

The sales included 35,529 general-purpose bomb bodies for 2,000-pound bombs and 4,000 bunker-busting 2,000-pound bombs made by General Dynamics.

While the Pentagon said that deliveries would begin in 2026, it also said “there is a possibility that a portion of this procurement will come from US stock” which could mean immediate delivery for some of the weapons.

A second package, valued at $675 million, consisted of five thousand 1,000-pound bombs and corresponding kits to help guide the “dumb” bombs. Delivery for this package was estimated to be in 2028. A third notification consisted of $295m worth of Caterpillar D9 bulldozers.