The US Congress passed a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill to support businesses and workers affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but which also granted hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to Israel.

The relief bill, part of an overall $2.3 trillion package, included $500 million for the “Israeli Cooperative Programs”, a substantial portion of which is dedicated to the Israeli military.

Around $73,000,000 of that amount will be for the Secretary of Defense to provide to the Israeli Government for the procurement of the Iron Dome defense system.

Moreover, a further “$177,000,000 will be for the Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense (SRBMD) program, including cruise missile defense research and development under the SRBMD program, of which $50,000,000 will be for co-production activities of SRBMD systems in the US and in Israel to meet Israel’s defense requirements.

The US previously agreed to give Israel $500 million to develop missile defense systems as part of the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which covered a 10-year period and $38 billion in military aid to Israel.