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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Saturday that it had successfully shot down three Hezbollah drones that were en route to the Karish gas field, which lies off of Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast.
One UAV was intercepted by an F16 fighter jet while the other two were downed by Barak 8 missiles launched from the Saar 5 Class Corvette INS Eilat. This was the first operational interception of a drone by Barak 8 missiles fired from a navy ship.
IAF fighter jet and an Israeli Navy missile ship intercepted 3 hostile UAVs from Lebanon which approached the airspace over Israel’s economic waters today.
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) July 3, 2022
According to the military, the unarmed drones were shot down at a safe distance from the gas field and never posed a “real threat.”
In response to this incident, Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced that Israel is “prepared to defend its infrastructure in the face of any threat.”
Israel asserts that the Karish gas field lies within its exclusive economic waters while Lebanon maintains that it is part of a maritime zone that is under dispute between the two countries. Tensions surrounding the gas field came to a head last month with the arrival of a rig that was set to begin extraction operations in the area.
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Israel will examine the bullet that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh “in the presence of the Americans,” Israeli army spokesperson Ran Kochav said on Sunday, disputing Palestinian claims that US experts would carry out the forensic analysis.
“The professional Israeli examination will take place in the presence of the Americans. If there is a match between the shell and the weapons of Israeli soldiers, we will inform the public,” Kochav said.
Abu Akleh, a veteran reporter for Al Jazeera, was killed on May 11 while covering an Israeli counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank city of Jenin. While some have contended that Israel is responsible for Abu Akleh’s death, the Israeli military has maintained that it cannot definitively conclude whether she was killed by Israeli or Palestinian fire without access to the bullet.
According to the military, “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation clearly concludes that Ms. Abu Akleh was not intentionally shot by an IDF soldier and that it is not possible to determine whether she was killed by a Palestinian gunman shooting indiscriminately…or inadvertently by an IDF soldier.”
The Palestinian Authority insisted for weeks that it would not hand over the bullet or conduct a joint investigation. But in an about-face, Ramallah transferred the bullet on Saturday night to the US embassy in Jerusalem for examination.
Israel had offered to conduct a joint investigation with Ramallah ever since Abu Akleh was shot. Israeli officials have said that ballistic analysis to match the gun with the bullet is necessary to determine whether an Israeli soldier fired the fatal round.
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In his first speech as Israel’s prime minister, Yair Lapid told reporters that as long as Israel’s security needs are met, it will remain a fundamentally peace-seeking nation.
Responding to the downing of three Hezbollah drones earlier in the day, Lapid warned Israel’s enemies: “I say to all our foes, from Gaza to Tehran, from the shores of Lebanon to Syria, don’t try us. Israel will use its power in the face of every threat and foe.”
However, the majority of the prime minister’s 15-minute speech was focused on regional peace, with Lapid praising both the Abraham Accords and Negev Summit for enhancing cooperation between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Morocco.
Lapid also reached out to the Palestinians: “Israel extends its hand to all the peoples of the Middle East, including the Palestinians, and says: the time has come for you to recognize that we’ll never move away from here, let us learn to coexist in peace.”
Yair Lapid became Israel’s caretaker prime minister following the dissolution of the Knesset on June 30. He will retain this position until after a national election is held on November 1.
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According to local media, an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria on Saturday morning targeted “game changing” Iranian air defense systems.
The strike reportedly hit a Syrian town near the port city of Tartus and came amid Iranian efforts to bring in advanced air defense systems in order “to protect their military interests.”
Israeli military sources contend that Syria has been improving its air defense capabilities using upgraded components provided by the Islamic Republic. This makes it more difficult for Israel to successfully and safely target Iranian proxies and weapons depots in the region.
The report further claimed that this effort to bolster Syrian air defenses was being led by a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer in cooperation with the Syrian military.
For over a decade, Israel has conducted airstrikes in Syrian territory in an effort to impede the transfer of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah and other regional terrorist groups, as well as to slow Tehran’s attempts to entrench itself within the war-torn country.
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According to a number of experts, Israel is well-positioned to weather a potential global economic recession as inflation rates continue to rise both at home and around the world.
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported that for May 2021, Israel’s inflation rate rose to 4.1 percent, the highest since June 2011. Even though inflation did not rise as high as forecasted, the ideal annual target rate of inflation is 1 to 3 percent.
Avi Weiss, the president of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, contends that the local economy is relatively stable as compared to other countries due to its robust high-tech sector, the return of tourism and its self-sufficiency in natural gas.
The growth of the high-tech sector saw a faster drop in Israel’s unemployment rate than was originally predicted while the recent Russia-Ukraine war has seen the expansion of Israel’s natural gas exports to a fuel-deprived European Union.
The positive forecast notwithstanding, the Bank of Israel is still aiming to curb inflation by raising interest rates, a move that will hopefully also rein in the country’s soaring housing prices.
Recommended Reading
- The Vast Iran-Hezbollah Drone Threat Is Escalating – Analysis (Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post)
- EU Agrees to Fund PA, Despite Terrorism and Hate Education (Itamar Marcus, Algemeiner)
- Vaccine Pioneer Albert Bourla Donates $1M Prize to Greek Holocaust Museum (Isabel Engel, NoCamels)
- A New Documentary Gives ‘Hallelujah’ Back to Leonard Cohen, and to Judaism (Andrew Lapin, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
- Heroic Israeli Performance Falls Short of European Soccer Title (Ori Lewis, Jerusalem Post)
