Israel, which continues to strike both the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon, announced on Thursday that it has signed a deal to purchase more than two dozen next generation F-15 fighter jets from US aviation giant Boeing.
The deal is worth $5.2 billion and is part of a broader package of US aid to the occupation regime approved by the administration of US President Joe Biden and Congress earlier this year.
In a statement released to the media, the Israeli regime’s ministry for military affairs announced that an agreement has been signed to acquire 25 next generation F-15 fighter jets from Boeing.
The statement said that the aircraft will be equipped with weapons systems integrated with existing Israeli weapons as well as having increased range and payloads, the statement said.
According to the ministry, the upgraded aircraft will help the air force ‘maintain its strategic superiority in addressing current and future challenges in the Middle East’.
Eyal Zamir, the director general of the ministry, noted that the Israeli regime has secured procurement agreements worth nearly $40 billion (£30.8 billion) since the onset of the campaign of death and destruction against the Palestinians in Gaza that began in October last year.
Israel’s ‘air power and strategic reach’, which Zamir said has been ‘crucial’, has been evident in attacks against a largely civilian population trapped in the besieged Palestinian territory.
At the end of September, Israel said it had received a new package of US military aid worth $8.7 billion (£6.8 billion).
Israel’s air force has repeatedly targeted civilians in Gaza and in Lebanon since October last year.
Arms have continued to flow from Western countries to Israel in recent months. The US, Germany, Britain, France and some other Western countries are the main culprits behind lethal arms sales to Israel.
In 2023, 69 per cent of Israel’s arms imports came from the US, according to a report into international arms transfers by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Germany was the second largest, providing 30 per cent.
The UK, France and Spain were among other minor contributors.
More than 50 countries recently issued a joint letter calling on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel as the Tel Aviv regime presses ahead with a campaign of death and destruction across the besieged Gaza Strip.
More than 100 journalists earlier called on the United States to impose a ban on weapons transfers to Israel over Israel’s killing of Palestinian media persons and reporters in its months-long aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on 7th October, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
Since late September, Israel has launched an intense air and ground onslaught against Lebanon after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges with resistance movement Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.
More than 3,000 Lebanese have been killed in Israeli strikes since early October last year.
- United States President Joe Biden plans to rush billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine before he leaves office in January, reports say, hoping to shore up the government in Kiev before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
His position on Ukraine has raised concerns about the future of Washington’s support for Ukraine’s war with Russia under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly the House of Representatives.
A senior Biden administration official said in a report published on Thursday: ‘The administration plans to push forward to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible.’
Biden’s plans for the transfers were first reported last week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump and he also spoke to the president-elect on Wednesday.
Zelensky said: ‘We agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our cooperation. Strong and unwavering US leadership is vital for the world and for a just peace.’
The US approved aid for Ukraine in April, including an allocation for weapons.
Of the weapons transfer authority passed, $4.3 billion remains, in addition to $2.8 billion worth of transfers lawmakers approved in previous spending measures and $2 billion in funding for new weapons purchases.
In total, that $9 billion in military assistance would be a significant boost to Ukraine’s defence.
- President-elect Donald Trump wants to withdraw US troops from northern Syria rather than leave them as ‘cannon fodder’ if fighting breaks out between Turkey and Kurdish militants, his ally Robert F Kennedy Jr has said.
Kennedy, who is expected to play a major role in the new US government, said during a live broadcast that Trump had expressed his intentions for northern Syria during a plane journey.
‘We were talking about the Middle East, and he took a piece of paper and drew on it a map of the Middle East with all the nations on it, which most Americans couldn’t do.
Kennedy said he was particularly looking at the border between Syria and Turkey.
He stated: ‘We have 500 men on the border of Syria and Turkey and a little encampment that was bombed.’
Trump had told him there were 750,000 troops in Turkey and 250,000 militants in Syria.
Kennedy said that Trump had told him: ‘If they go up against each other, we’re in the middle.’
Kennedy added that: ‘Trump was told by the generals that the US troops would be cannon fodder if Turkey and the Kurdish forces came to blows. And he said, “Get them out!’.’
The US military has for long stationed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s natural resources.
Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.
Turkey has also deployed forces in Syria in violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ankara claims that the US-backed YPG Kurdish militants are a ‘terrorist organisation’ tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous region in Turkey since 1984.Israel, which continues to strike both the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon, announced on Thursday that it has signed a deal to purchase more than two dozen next generation F-15 fighter jets from US aviation giant Boeing.
The deal is worth $5.2 billion and is part of a broader package of US aid to the occupation regime approved by the administration of US President Joe Biden and Congress earlier this year.
In a statement released to the media, the Israeli regime’s ministry for military affairs announced that an agreement has been signed to acquire 25 next generation F-15 fighter jets from Boeing.
The statement said that the aircraft will be equipped with weapons systems integrated with existing Israeli weapons as well as having increased range and payloads, the statement said.
According to the ministry, the upgraded aircraft will help the air force ‘maintain its strategic superiority in addressing current and future challenges in the Middle East’.
Eyal Zamir, the director general of the ministry, noted that the Israeli regime has secured procurement agreements worth nearly $40 billion (£30.8 billion) since the onset of the campaign of death and destruction against the Palestinians in Gaza that began in October last year.
Israel’s ‘air power and strategic reach’, which Zamir said has been ‘crucial’, has been evident in attacks against a largely civilian population trapped in the besieged Palestinian territory.
At the end of September, Israel said it had received a new package of US military aid worth $8.7 billion (£6.8 billion).
Israel’s air force has repeatedly targeted civilians in Gaza and in Lebanon since October last year.
Arms have continued to flow from Western countries to Israel in recent months. The US, Germany, Britain, France and some other Western countries are the main culprits behind lethal arms sales to Israel.
In 2023, 69 per cent of Israel’s arms imports came from the US, according to a report into international arms transfers by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Germany was the second largest, providing 30 per cent.
The UK, France and Spain were among other minor contributors.
More than 50 countries recently issued a joint letter calling on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel as the Tel Aviv regime presses ahead with a campaign of death and destruction across the besieged Gaza Strip.
More than 100 journalists earlier called on the United States to impose a ban on weapons transfers to Israel over Israel’s killing of Palestinian media persons and reporters in its months-long aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on 7th October, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
Since late September, Israel has launched an intense air and ground onslaught against Lebanon after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges with resistance movement Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.
More than 3,000 Lebanese have been killed in Israeli strikes since early October last year.
- United States President Joe Biden plans to rush billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine before he leaves office in January, reports say, hoping to shore up the government in Kiev before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
His position on Ukraine has raised concerns about the future of Washington’s support for Ukraine’s war with Russia under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly the House of Representatives.
A senior Biden administration official said in a report published on Thursday: ‘The administration plans to push forward to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible.’
Biden’s plans for the transfers were first reported last week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump and he also spoke to the president-elect on Wednesday.
Zelensky said: ‘We agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our cooperation. Strong and unwavering US leadership is vital for the world and for a just peace.’
The US approved aid for Ukraine in April, including an allocation for weapons.
Of the weapons transfer authority passed, $4.3 billion remains, in addition to $2.8 billion worth of transfers lawmakers approved in previous spending measures and $2 billion in funding for new weapons purchases.
In total, that $9 billion in military assistance would be a significant boost to Ukraine’s defence.
- President-elect Donald Trump wants to withdraw US troops from northern Syria rather than leave them as ‘cannon fodder’ if fighting breaks out between Turkey and Kurdish militants, his ally Robert F Kennedy Jr has said.
Kennedy, who is expected to play a major role in the new US government, said during a live broadcast that Trump had expressed his intentions for northern Syria during a plane journey.
‘We were talking about the Middle East, and he took a piece of paper and drew on it a map of the Middle East with all the nations on it, which most Americans couldn’t do.
Kennedy said he was particularly looking at the border between Syria and Turkey.
He stated: ‘We have 500 men on the border of Syria and Turkey and a little encampment that was bombed.’
Trump had told him there were 750,000 troops in Turkey and 250,000 militants in Syria.
Kennedy said that Trump had told him: ‘If they go up against each other, we’re in the middle.’
Kennedy added that: ‘Trump was told by the generals that the US troops would be cannon fodder if Turkey and the Kurdish forces came to blows. And he said, “Get them out!’.’
The US military has for long stationed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s natural resources.
Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.
Turkey has also deployed forces in Syria in violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ankara claims that the US-backed YPG Kurdish militants are a ‘terrorist organisation’ tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous region in Turkey since 1984.
