Congress was notified by the Biden administration of the $8 billion arms sale to Israel

The State Department has unofficially informed Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale to support Israel's long-term security by restoring stocks of critical weapons and air defense capabilities, a US official familiar with the information confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.

President Biden has made it clear that Israel has the right to protect its citizens as the US alliance moves forward its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Some arms in the package can be shipped with current US stocks but most will take more than a year to several years to deliver, the US official said.

The sale includes medium-range air-to-air missiles to help Israel defend against aerial threats, long-range 155 mm projectile shells, Hellfire AGM-114 missiles, 500-pound bombs and more.

News of the arms sale was first reported by Axios.

The arms package would add to the record at least $17.9 billion in military aid the US has given Israel since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, which started the war.

The Biden administration has faced criticism over the mounting deaths of Palestinian civilians. There were protests on college campuses and unsuccessful attempts at Congress by Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, and some Democrats to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel.

the United States stopped the shipment of 2,000 bombs to Israel in May over concerns about casualties if the bombs were to be used during an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The Biden administration wants Israel to increase humanitarian aid to the enclave. But in November, citing some limited progress, it refused to limit arms transfers as it had threatened to do if the situation did not improve.

In recent days, Israel has been airstrikes in Gaza which has killed dozens of people, adding to the tens of thousands of people who have died since the war began more than a year ago.

The Israeli military said on Friday it had struck dozens of Hamas gathering places and command centers across Gaza. The Israeli military says it only targets terrorists and blames Hamas for the deaths because its soldiers operate in densely populated areas.

The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced nearly 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million people, many of them multiple times. Winter is here nowand hundreds of thousands are hiding in tents near the sea.

The informal notification to Congress is not the final notification before the sale. Now leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee can review the package.

Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.