US to 'contribute’ anti-tank missiles
to Israel

Palestine Media Center
4 July 2002

The United States is to provide Israel with 2,000 TOW anti-tank missiles, which the occupation army has regularly used in helicopter air strikes against Palestinian targets and assassination attacks.

The $80 million comes as part of a military aid package, which the Pentagon announced would "contribute to US national Security by enhancing the security of a friend".

The missiles, which weigh 19 kilograms and have a 3-4 kilometre range have been responsible for the gruesome deaths of most of the almost 100 assassinated Palestinian activists as well as a number of innocent bystanders, including two children. They are also mounted and used by Israeli tanks.

In one incident, Israeli occupation forces murdered three children, their mother, as well as two children aged 16 and four in an assassination attempt against a Hamas political activist in Ramallah.

Regulations governing American military aid forbid the Administration from providing arsenal to a state that is likely to use it in military conflict or against civilians. Various attempts by non-governmental organizations and a number of Congress members to pressure Congress into requiring Israel not to use weapons provided by American military aid against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have thus far failed.