The United States military has been quietly shipping hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine from a massive stockpile in Israel.

According to a report on Tuesday, the ammunition supply is located in Israel for the US military to use in regional conflicts.

The US has also given Israel permission to use some of the supplies in emergency situations, The New York Times reported, citing American and Israeli officials.

The previous government approved of the move as Israel attempted to chart a course between maintaining ties with the US and Ukraine, and not antagonising Russia.

US officials first brought up the possibility of supplying Ukraine from the stockpile in Israel last year, sparking concerns in Jerusalem about how Russia would react, the report said.

The US secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin informed Benny Gantz, Israel’s defence minister at the time, that the US wanted to tap into the stockpile, an Israeli official said.

Gantz discussed the request with the cabinet, which asked security officials to weigh in. The defence officials said Israel should accept the plan to head off any friction with Washington, and because the ammunition belonged to the US.

It also said that the then-prime minister Yair Lapid approved the move after talks with the cabinet and security officials.

The US and Israel agreed to ship around 300,000 shells to Ukraine, Israeli and US officials told the Times.

The existence of the stockpile had been previously acknowledged, although it was not widely known. The Times was the first to report it was being used to supply Ukraine.

Israeli officials told the Times that Jerusalem had not altered its position against giving Ukraine lethal weapons, but was agreeing to the US using its own supplies.

Israel has resisted providing weapons to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion. One major reason for Israel’s hesitance appears to be its strategic need to maintain freedom of operations in Syria, where Russian forces largely control the airspace.

The issue has strained ties between Jerusalem and Kyiv, as the Ukrainians have consistently pressed Israel to provide more defence aid. The Ukrainian ambassador on Tuesday again urged Israel to supply his country with missile defence systems in the wake of continued deadly Russian strikes.

Israel has provided large amounts of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as well as other types of assistance, and the new government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it intends to keep those supplies flowing.

The US stockpile in Israel dates back to the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The US delivered weapons to beleaguered Israeli forces during the war, then set up storage facilities in Israel for use in a potential crisis.

US tanks and armoured personnel carriers were stowed in the Negev desert in case American forces in the Middle East needed them. Later on, in the 2000s, munitions for the different branches of the US military were kept in Israel in locations that were only open to the US personnel, the report said.

The stockpile was officially known as War Reserve Stocks for Allies-Israel, or WRSA-I. It was supervised by the US European Command and is now overseen by the US Central Command, which has included Israel since 2021.

Israel used ammunition from the stockpile during the 2006 Lebanon war against the Hezbollah terror group, and during fighting against Gaza terrorists in 2014, according to a Congressional report from last year.

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