Republican US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had ordered the US military to lift the suspension imposed by Democratic former President Joe Biden on the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

The move was widely expected.

“We wanted the ban. We wanted the ban today. And they’re going to have them. They paid for them and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time. They’ve been in storage,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Biden had suspended the delivery of these bombs due to concerns about the effect they might have on the civilian population, particularly in Gaza’s Rafah, during Israel’s war on the Palestinian enclave.

A 2,000-pound bomb can penetrate a thick layer of concrete and metal, creating a large blast radius. Reuters reported last year that the Biden administration had sent thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants from Gaza, but had suspended the delivery of one shipment.

Washington has announced billions of dollars in aid to Israel since the war began.

Asked why he lifted the moratorium on powerful bombs, Trump said, “because they bought them.”

Earlier on Saturday, Trump said on the Truth Social platform: “A lot of things that Israel ordered and paid for, but haven’t been sent by Biden, are now on their way!”.

Trump and Biden strongly support US ally Israel, although Washington has come under fire from human rights advocates over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza triggered by Israel’s military offensive. Some have called, to no avail, for an arms embargo.

Washington says it is helping Israel defend itself against Iranian-backed militant groups such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

A ceasefire came into effect a week ago in Gaza which has led to the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Before his inauguration on January 20, Trump had warned that “hell” would break out if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were not released.

Hamas took some 250 hostages in the 2023 attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli accounts. The war caused the latest bloodshed in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel’s military offensive on Gaza that followed killed at least 47,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. It also caused the displacement of almost the entire population of Gaza and a famine crisis.