H.R. 3565 is an historic bill that would prohibit the President from selling, transferring, or authorizing export licenses for seven types of weapons to Israel. This includes BLU-109 bunker busting bombs, MK80 series bomb variants, GBU-39 small-diameter bomb variants, Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) assemblies, SPICE gliding bomb assemblies, 120 mm tank ammunition, and 155 mm artillery ammunition, including white phosphorus.
Amnesty International has provided extensive evidence that Israeli forces have repeatedly committed serious violations of international law in the occupied Gaza Strip as well as unlawful attacks on journalists and healthcare in Lebanon. Amnesty has also concluded that Israel’s actions against Palestinians in Gaza constitute the crime of genocide, which is ongoing during the so-called ceasefire. At the same time, Israel continues to entrench its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and to impose its apartheid system over the Palestinian people as a whole.
The U.S. continues to provide billions of dollars in military funding to the Israeli government and to transfer weapons at a rapid pace. By continuing to provide arms and other military support to Israel, the U.S. government risks complicity in serious violations of international law, including genocide.
Members of Congress must take urgent action to ensure that the U.S. immediately suspends the supply, sale, or transfer to Israel of all weapons, munitions, and other military and security equipment, including the provision of training and other military and security assistance.
Pattern of Attacks:
Amnesty analyzed its investigations into 15 Israeli airstrikes, including some conducted with confirmed U.S.-origin arms, that are representative of a broader pattern of violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) by Israeli forces: Strikes targeted civilian objects; no military objectives in or near the area; and 12 out of 15 attacks were at night or early morning, with massive casualties likely intended. The attacks occurred in different locations across Gaza, including homes and other residential buildings, a church, a market street, and a public market, often wiping out entire families. At least 334 civilians, including 141 children, were killed, with hundreds wounded. All strikes amounted to war crimes.
Amnesty also conducted preliminary fieldwork into 124 other airstrikes. The investigations were not completed due to a number of reasons, including the inability to re-establish contact with survivors and witnesses. However, in all 124 cases, Amnesty established that Israel carried out the attacks and, in many cases, found no legitimate military target was present.
Evidence of U.S.-Origin Weapons:
- October 10, 2023 – Israeli strike on a family home in Deir al-Balah killed 21 members of the al-Najjar family and three neighbors. A Boeing JDAM kit was used with a bomb that likely weighed 2,000 lb.
- October 22, 2023 – Israeli strike on three family homes north of Deir Al-Balah killed 18 members of the Mu’eileq family and one neighbor. A Boeing JDAM kit was used with a bomb that likely weighed at least 1,000 lb.
- January 9, 2024 – Israeli strike hit the top two floors of the Nofal family five-story building in Tal Al Sultan in Rafah using a Boeing GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb. The attack killed 18 Palestinian civilians and wounded eight others.
- April 19, 2024 – Israeli strike on the four-story home of the Abu Radwan family in Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah killed nine family members and injured five relatives. Remnants of the bomb’s precision guidance package were at least partially manufactured by U.S. defense contractor AeroAntenna.
Engineered Humanitarian Catastrophe
During the so-called ceasefire, Israel has only allowed extremely limited supplies to reach a population that lacks almost everything and is living in extreme deprivation amidst complete destruction. After multiple displacements, destruction of or damage to at least 81% of structures, and designation of nearly 58% of Gaza as “no-go zones,” most Palestinians are living in dilapidated tents or damaged shelters with overflowing sewage and floodwaters, exposed to the cold and heavy winds, with no adequate medical care or necessary materials to endure the winter.
Israel’s persistent failure to lift restrictions on critical aid supplies and to comply with binding provisional orders of the International Court of Justice on providing unfettered access for humanitarian assistance or its advisory opinion on the obligation to facilitate the work of the UN throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory is further indication that Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza has not changed.
AMNESTY RECOMMENDS:
- All Representatives urgently co-sponsor H.R. 3565 (Block the Bombs Act)
- Take concrete action to immediately suspend the supply, sale, or transfer to Israel of all weapons, munitions, and other military and security equipment, including the provision of training and other military and security assistance, including by voting against foreign military funding to Israel
February 10, 2026 | by Amnesty International USA