The United States has approved arms sales worth $20 billion to Israel, including numerous fighter jets and modern air-to-air missiles, the US State Department said on Tuesday, two days before planned ceasefire Talks begin in the region. A Hamas representative told CBS News on Tuesday:

Congress has been informed of the impending sale, which has been expected since April and comes at a time when there is great concern that Israel is in a major war in the Middle East. The package includes up to 50 F-15 fighter aircraft, up to 30 modern medium-range air-to-air missiles, tactical vehicles and a large number of tank shells and high-explosive mortar shells.

However, the weapons are not expected to arrive in Israel immediately or even this year, as delivery dates range from 2026 to 2029. Earlier this year, several lawmakers, including Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, planned to object to the sale.

The deliveries are intended to maintain and expand Israel’s long-term defense capability. Most deliveries will be made in installments over several years, a State Department official told CBS News. The F-15 fighter jets, for example, are manufactured by Boeing and their full delivery will take at least 10 years, the official said.

“The United States is committed to Israel’s security, and it is critical to U.S. national interests to help Israel develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. The proposed sale is consistent with these goals,” the U.S. State Department said in a press release about the sale.

The Biden administration had to balance its continued support for Israel, as there are growing calls from politicians and the US public to limit military support there due to the high civilian death toll in Gaza. Israel has halted a shipment of 2,000-pound weapons while Israel continues to carry out airstrikes on densely populated civilian areas in Gaza.

The contracts not only cover the sale of 50 new aircraft that Boeing will produce, but also include upgrade kits for Israel to upgrade its existing fleet of two dozen F-15 fighter jets with new engines and radars, among other things. The jets account for more than $18 billion of the $20 billion sale.

The sale came ahead of Thursday’s ceasefire talks, which are being coordinated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar. A Hamas official told CBS News on Tuesday that Hamas would not participate but would continue negotiations because it had not received assurances from negotiators that Israel would agree to work on the basis of Hamas’ July 2 proposal.

“We are serious about reaching an agreement because it is our responsibility to our people to end the massacres and famine that war and occupation are inflicting on our people,” Hamas representative in Lebanon Ahmad Abdul Hadi told CBS News in a statement in Arabic.

“We are not against the idea of ​​negotiations,” Hadi said, adding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government had rejected Hamas’ July 2 proposal and set new conditions despite assurances that it would be taken seriously. murdered the head of our movementthey committed a massacre in Al-Tabeen School and continue their massacres.”

US officials said the US was ready to make a “final stopgap proposal” in ceasefire talks to find common ground between Hamas and Israel. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, however, said the deployment of US military assets to the Middle East was not a sign that a larger regional conflict was inevitable.

The announcement of the arms sale also came weeks after Netanyahu doubled to his claims that the US had withheld arms supplies for Israel’s war effort in Gaza, despite the The Biden administration denies this claim.

On June 23, Netanyahu told his cabinet that there had been a “dramatic decline” in U.S. weapons about four months earlier, but did not specify which weapons. Those comments came just days after he released a video in English claiming there had been weeks of futile appeals to American officials to speed up deliveries.