Latest news with #IsraeliDefense
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 days ago
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Amid Gaza War, Israel Defense Exports Jump 13% in 2024 to Record $15 bln
Israel's defense exports rose 13% in 2024 to a record of nearly $15 billion, led by missiles, rockets and air-defense systems with over half the deliveries going to European militaries, the government said on Wednesday. Military exports, the Defense Ministry said in a statement, have more than doubled over the past five years, reaching nearly $15 billion in value in 2024. The ministry said that since the outbreak of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel's defense industries have operated in emergency mode with round-the-clock arms production while also maintaining manufacturing for foreign clients. "The new record in Israeli defense exports, achieved during a year of war, reflects more than anything else the growing global appreciation for Israeli technology's proven capabilities," said Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram, Reuters reported. "Israeli systems have resonated throughout the Middle East this past year. More nations want to protect their citizens using Israeli defense equipment." The ministry said there was significant growth in contracts from Europe last year, where exports accounted for 54% of the total, up from 36% in 2023. Asia-Pacific was next at 23% with the United States at 9%. Missile, rocket and air defense systems comprised 48% of defence exports, followed by vehicles and armoured personnel carriers at 9%, and satellites and space systems, radar and electronic warfare, manned aircraft and avionics at 8% each. Some 57% of contracts amounted to more than $100 million.
BreakingNews.ie
29-05-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Israel says it will establish 22 new Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank
Israel has said it would establish 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. They would include new settlements and the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation. Advertisement Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, killed 12 people overnight, health officials said. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want it to be the main part of their future state. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict. Israel's defence minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision 'strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria', using the biblical term for the West Bank, 'anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism'. Advertisement Israel's defence minister Israel Katz described the settlements decision as a strategic move (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) He added it was also 'a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel'. Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small hilltop outposts to fully developed communities with blocks of flats, shopping centres, factories and public parks. The West Bank is home to three million Palestinians, who live under Israeli military rule with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centres. The settlers have Israeli citizenship. Israel has accelerated settlement construction in recent years – long before Hamas's October 7 2023 attack ignited the war in Gaza – confining Palestinians to smaller and smaller areas of the West Bank and making the prospect of establishing a viable, independent state even more remote. Advertisement During his first term, US President Donald Trump's administration broke with decades of US foreign policy by supporting Israel's claims to territory seized by force and taking steps to legitimise the settlements. Former president Joe Biden, like most of his predecessors, opposed the settlements but applied little pressure to Israel to curb their growth. During his first term US President Donald Trump supported Israel's claims to territory seized by force (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The top United Nations court ruled last year that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on it to end, and for settlement construction to stop immediately. Israel denounced the non-binding opinion by a 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people. Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but leading figures in the current government have called for them to be re-established and for much of the Palestinian population of the territory to be resettled elsewhere through what they describe as voluntary emigration. Palestinians view such plans as a blueprint for their forcible expulsion from their homeland, and experts say the plans would likely violate international law. Advertisement Israel now controls more than 70% of Gaza, according to Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies at Ben Gurion University, who has examined Israeli-Palestinian land use patterns for decades. The area includes buffer zones along the border with Israel as well as the southern city of Rafah, which is now mostly uninhabited, and other large areas that Israel has ordered to be evacuated. The war began with Hamas's October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around a third of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. Advertisement Israeli strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians overnight in Gaza, according to local hospitals. Four were killed in a strike on a car in Gaza City late on Wednesday and another eight, including two women and three children, were killed in a strike on a home in Jabaliya. A strike on a built-up refugee camp in central Gaza killed one person and wounded 18. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants are embedded in populated areas.
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
In Gaza, 45 killed in strikes as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians
Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 45 people, including several women and a week-old infant. The fresh strikes come as Israel's war on Hamas shows no signs of relenting, despite a surge in international anger at Israel's widening offensive. Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need, according to aid groups. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday evening that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time. Internal notes circulated among aid groups Wednesday and seen by The Associated Press said that no humanitarian trucks had left Kerem Shalom, the border crossing in southern Gaza that is operated by Israel. The notes said 65 trucks moved from the Israel side of the crossing to the Palestinian side, but hadn't made it into Gaza. The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering into Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid was able to continue into Gaza for distribution. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said they waited several hours to collect aid from the border crossing in order to begin distribution but were unable to do so on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the U.K. suspended free trade talks with Israel over its intensifying assault, a step that came a day after the U.K., Canada and France promised concrete steps to prompt Israel to halt the war. Separately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza. Israel says it is prepared to stop the war once all the hostages taken by Hamas return home and Hamas is defeated, or is exiled and disarmed. Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and an end to the war. It rejects demands for exile and disarmament. Israel called back its senior negotiating team from ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, saying it would leave lower-level officials in place instead. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued to pound Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expected expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes but has said it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud contributed from Beirut and Sam Mednick contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
In Gaza, 45 killed in strikes as desperately needed aid fails to reach Palestinians
Deir al-Balah, Gaza (AP) — Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 45 people, including several women and a week-old infant. The fresh strikes come as Israel's war on Hamas shows no signs of relenting, despite a surge in international anger at Israel's widening offensive. Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Tuesday, but the aid has not yet reached Palestinians in desperate need, according to aid groups. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday evening that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time. Internal notes circulated among aid groups Wednesday and seen by The Associated Press said that no humanitarian trucks had left Kerem Shalom, the border crossing in southern Gaza that is operated by Israel. The notes said 65 trucks moved from the Israel side of the crossing to the Palestinian side, but hadn't made it into Gaza. The Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid to Gaza said trucks were entering into Gaza on Wednesday morning, but it was unclear if that aid was able to continue into Gaza for distribution. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said they waited several hours to collect aid from the border crossing in order to begin distribution but were unable to do so on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the U.K. suspended free trade talks with Israel over its intensifying assault, a step that came a day after the U.K., Canada and France promised concrete steps to prompt Israel to halt the war. Separately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza. Israel says it is prepared to stop the war once all the hostages taken by Hamas return home and Hamas is defeated, or is exiled and disarmed. Hamas says it is prepared to release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and an end to the war. It rejects demands for exile and disarmament. Israel called back its senior negotiating team from ceasefire talks in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, saying it would leave lower-level officials in place instead. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued to pound Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel recently ordered new evacuations pending an expected expanded offensive, 24 people were killed, 14 of them from the same family. A week-old infant was killed in central Gaza. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes but has said it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and accused Hamas militants of operating from civilian areas. The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AlJoud contributed from Beirut and Sam Mednick contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Arab News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Why Israel's Gaza reoccupation threat is fueling fears of regional spillover
LONDON: For the people of Gaza, the threat of destruction, displacement and death at the hands of the Israeli military is nothing new. But for the next week they will living with a countdown to a threatened operation that would be unprecedented: the complete and indefinite occupation of Gaza by Israel, and the forcing of its Palestinian population into a tiny area in the south of the strip. If such an unthinkable end-game exercise were to go ahead — and reports that tens of thousands of Israeli reservists are being called up suggests it might — critics of the plan say Israel appears to have forgotten the lessons of the events that led to its own creation in 1948. According to sources inside the Israeli government, the only thing standing between the Palestinians of Gaza and this 21st-century Nakba is next week's visit to the region by US President Donald Trump, who is due to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE between Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesday this week an unnamed Israeli defense official told AP that the operation would not be launched before Trump had left the region, adding there was a 'window of opportunity' for a ceasefire and a hostage deal during the president's visit. And so, the countdown to the military operation began. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his security cabinet had approved an 'intensive' renewed offensive against Hamas in Gaza, and that Palestinians would be moved 'for their own safety.' 'Last night we stayed up late in the cabinet and decided on an intensive operation in Gaza,' Netanyahu said. A US-backed truce between Israel and Hamas ended in March, after only two months, when Israel resumed its attacks. It was, Netanyahu added, seeming to tether a scapegoat to the decision, 'the chief of staff's recommendation to proceed, as he put it, toward the defeat of Hamas — and along the way, he believes this will also help us rescue the hostages.' News of the plan triggered immediate protests outside Israel's parliament by families of the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. Few among them believe the plan has anything to do with a genuine desire to see their loved ones freed. The chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces is retired Major-General Eyal Zamir, a favorite of the far-right members of Israel's government, who was appointed only last month. His predecessor resigned, after taking responsibility for Israel's military failings during the Hamas attack in October 2023. 'I'm pretty sure Zamir is praying that he will not have to execute this plan,' Ahron Bregman, a UK-based Israeli historian and senior teaching fellow at the Department of War Studies, King's College London, and a former IDF officer, told Arab News. 'He's experienced enough to know that the operation might well kill the remaining Israeli hostages, or lead to a situation where the hostages are left to die in the tunnels without water or food, never to be found. 'As I have always maintained, Israel cannot destroy Hamas. Hamas, weak, bleeding and exhausted, will still be in the Gaza Strip when this hopeless war is over,' he added. Israeli troops, who have evicted Palestinians from so-called security zones, already occupy about one-third of Gaza. If implemented, the new plan would see the seizure of the entire territory, with Gaza's remaining two million Palestinians forced toward the south. The UN has already expressed alarm at Israel's plan to expand its operation in Gaza. 'This will inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza,' UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Monday. 'What's imperative now is an end to the violence, not more civilian deaths and destruction.' He added: 'Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state.' Meanwhile, Netanyahu's security cabinet has voted to end distribution of aid by international NGOs and UN bodies, and to give the job to as-yet unnamed private companies. At the beginning of the month, the UN condemned Israel's decision two months ago to halt humanitarian aid as a 'cruel collective punishment' of the Palestinian population. On Friday, Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, said a US-backed mechanism for distributing aid into Gaza should take effect soon but he gave few details. Israel and the US have both indicated in recent days that they were preparing to restore aid through mechanisms that would bypass Hamas. 'The Israeli military plan for Gaza is mainly aimed at satisfying the far-right elements in Netanyahu's government,' said Bregman. 'The new idea here is seizing chunks of the Gaza Strip and staying there, not getting out, as used to be the case.' Right-wing, pro-settler members of the Israeli Cabinet, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givr, 'hope that staying inside will eventually lead to the resettling of the Gaza Strip by Jewish settlers who will resort to the tactics they employ on the West Bank, building settlements even if 'official Israel' opposes it,' he added. 'They also trust far-right elements in the IDF — and the IDF is packed with them, especially in the ground forces — to turn a blind eye and enable the resettling of the Strip.' But, he warned, 'if ordered to implement the Gaza plan, Israeli troops must refuse to carry out the orders, lest they turn themselves into war criminals.' On Tuesday, the day after Netanyahu's announcement, Smotrich told a settlements conference in the West Bank that Gaza would soon be 'totally destroyed,' and that its entire population would be 'concentrated' in a narrow strip of land along the Egyptian border, which he euphemistically described as a 'humanitarian zone.' Here, he added, 'they will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places.' Sir John Jenkins, former UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, and British consul-general in Jerusalem, told Arab News: 'There are clearly elements within the Israeli Cabinet who want to reoccupy some or even all of Gaza and there are others who want to establish settlements. What is unclear is how extensive or long-term such plans are — and whether they have Netanyahu's full support. 'He has clearly got his own tactical reasons for going along with some of the wilder claims: he needs to keep Smotrich and Ben Gvir inside the tent in order to maintain his government. He also probably genuinely believes — as, quite rightly, do most Israelis and a lot of outsiders — that Hamas cannot be allowed to retain political control of Gaza when the fighting stops. 'But he must also know that without a long-term political plan, this won't work. Israel needs its neighbors to support it in its quest for security. And they will do so only if they have an answer to the question: How do we collectively make Israeli security compatible with Palestinian self-determination?' Burcu Ozcelik, senior research fellow for Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute, said it remains unclear whether Israel's threat of reoccupation is 'a form of deterrence, a credible threat, or a last-ditch effort to (force) Hamas' hand.' However, 'the fear of abandoning the Israeli hostages to a terrible fate is too much to bear for the majority of the Israeli polity, and this would inevitably have consequences for the current Israeli government,' he told Arab News. President Trump's upcoming visit may also change the script. 'It is rumored that Trump is not on board with Israel's escalation of the war in Gaza, especially ahead of his visit to the Gulf next week,' said Ozcelik. 'The White House has been pressing for a deal to announce as a triumph and a hostage-release announcement would be a crucial win for (US special envoy to the Middle East) Steve Witkoff, but so far it has been elusive.' Furthermore, 'under the threat of a looming 'forever' Israeli reoccupation of Gaza, Saudi Arabia cannot be expected to agree to any deal with the US that is conditional on normalization with Israel. So, this, in a counterintuitive way, throws open a path for US-Saudi security cooperation,' Ozcelik added. Doubts also surround the announcement by Witkoff that the US will set up a private foundation to deliver aid to Gaza, without involving the IDF or the US government. 'The UN and key international humanitarian agencies have already rejected both the US and Israeli aid proposals, labelling them highly unworkable,' Kelly Petillo, program manager, MENA, at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Arab News. 'And in the context of Israel's campaign of starvation by stopping humanitarian aid since March and the targeting of civilians, hospitals, schools and so on, and of the new US administration's rhetoric around the Gaza war and overall positioning, there are clearly doubts over the lack of good will by the delivering authorities, which means that Palestinians will be starved and eventually be forced to leave. 'This would amount to ethnic cleansing and also corresponds to weaponizing aid and using starvation as a weapon of war. It will mean that considerations over how many people will receive aid, or where distribution will occur, would be based on strategic or military considerations, rather than humanitarian ones.' Israel's apparent ambition to force Palestinians out of Gaza can only further stoke regional tensions, added Petillo. 'Regional actors, (most) of all Egypt and Jordan, have been very clear in their total rejection of any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, and of the possibility of them receiving these refugees. In particular, Egypt has come up with a proposal to address aid and other issues as a way to counter this scenario. 'But the potential displacement of Palestinians in Gaza is nothing less than an existential threat for these countries which are also receiving so many other refugees — from Syria to Sudan and more. Syria and Lebanon have also been floated as possible destinations for Gazans, but this would be a major red line for these countries too.' Echoing Petillo's concerns, Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East North Africa Program at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said the Israeli plan to capture and indefinitely occupy Gaza 'carries grave policy implications at multiple layers and levels for Israel, Palestinians and the region.' Vakil said: 'Beyond deepening an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis, it risks entrenching violent resistance, destabilizing neighboring states and triggering large-scale displacement that may be viewed internationally as ethnic cleansing — particularly in light of right-wing Israeli rhetoric and emboldening signals from past US policies. 'While Israel consistently sees Gaza as an existential security crisis that needs a military solution, it needs to take a step back and consider the larger and longer implications for its isolation, integration and values as a democracy,' she added. 'Today, Arab states are watching Israel's response in a fearful rather than (admiring) way.' Caroline Rose, director of the Strategic Blind Spots Portfolio at the Washington think-tank New Lines Institute, said the expansion in Israel's war plan for the Gaza Strip 'signals Netanyahu's imperative to continue the conflict as a mechanism of political survival, despite the strain on Israel's economy, IDF personnel and reserves, and reduced chances for a hostage agreement.' She told Arab News: 'It's likely also that Netanyahu and his cabinet are seeking to expand operations as a negotiation tool with the US and its regional counterparts, particularly following disappointment with the US for exploring negotiation opportunities with Iran over their nuclear program.' But 'by design, this war plan will have serious implications for the civilian population of Gaza, as there are very few places left for them to go. It is a direct reflection of Netanyahu's broader objective not only to eradicate Hamas, but also to seriously fragment the Palestinian cause and identity.' In the past, said Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli lawyer whose NGO, Terrestrial Jerusalem, tracks developments in the city that threaten to spark violence or create humanitarian crises, 'ethnic cleansing would have been unthinkable. But today the unthinkable has become thinkable and is unfolding in Gaza.' The Israeli government is 'willing hostage to the messianic right' and is led by 'a prime minister who will not only do anything to remain in power but is also a genuine believer in a world governed by war and brute force.' More and more Israelis, he added, 'are using the terms 'genocide,' 'war crimes' and 'ethnic cleansing' in decrying our actions in Gaza. Retired generals and former heads of the intelligence community are prominent among them.' However, he said, 'this trend is not visible in the partisan politics of the Knesset. With the exception of the Arab members, they remain spineless.'
