The US state department has approved a $320 million sale to Israel of equipment for kits that turn unguided bombs into more precise, GPS-guided munitions, according to a letter sent by the department to Congress that was obtained by The New York Times.

The order comes on top of an earlier one for the same equipment that was valued at almost $403 million.

Israel has been using the kits during its bombing campaign in Gaza. According to the Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in the enclave, the Israeli strikes have resulted in the deaths of about 10,000 Palestinians, 40 per cent of whom are young children and teens.

Israel has ordered more munitions from the US alongside the equipment for guided bomb kits. Modern militaries generally add guidance systems onto bombs with the goal of minimising civilian casualties, although the damage can still be devastating, especially in urban areas.

Israel’s arsenal of air munitions is made up largely of 453- 907-kg bombs, among the largest used by any military force. Israel dropped at least two 907-kg bombs in an airstrike on October 31 on the dense Jabalia neighborhood of Gaza. That strike killed dozens of people and injured many more, according to Gaza authorities.

Israel says it had successfully targeted a senior Hamas commander who helped plan the October 7 attacks launched from Gaza, in which Hamas fighters and other armed assailants killed what Israel says was more than 1,400 people, most of them Israeli civilians, and abducted more than 240 others. Hamas denies that any of its commanders were in the Jabalia area at the time of the October 31 strike.

The state department happened to send its letter on the new sale of bomb equipment to congressional offices on the day of that strike on Jabalia.