A Russian military blogger known as "Rybar" has reported that Israel conducted a test of a ballistic missile with a range exceeding 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles). According to the blogger, whose reports primarily focus on the war in Ukraine, Israel launched the missile from the Palmachim base towards the Mediterranean Sea, striking a maritime area south of Italy's coast.

The blogger claimed that the missile's range is sufficient to cover most of Iran's territory. "Judging by the lack of media coverage and the distance of observation aircraft, it seems the Israelis were trying something serious," Rybar stated on his Telegram channel.

Rybar has previously been used by the Kremlin to disseminate information aligning with its positions. It is likely that Moscow is the source of the information the blogger is relaying, while ostensibly relying on open-source intelligence.

The test allegedly demonstrated Israel's capacity to strike targets at a distance that could potentially reach Iran. This development comes amidst ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran, with both countries viewing each other as significant security threats. Israel has never officially confirmed possession of long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching Iran. The country maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its military capabilities, particularly concerning its alleged nuclear arsenal.

The reported missile test, if confirmed, could be seen as a signal of Israel's deterrence capabilities against potential threats in the region. However, as of now, there has been no official comment from Israeli authorities regarding this alleged missile test. The lack of wider media coverage and the specific nature of the source raises questions about the veracity of the claim.

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Israeli archaeologists have announced a groundbreaking discovery – the remains of what is believed to be the oldest shipwreck found in deep waters. Hundreds of intact amphorae, ancient storage jars dating back approximately 3,300 years, were discovered 90 kilometers (56 miles) off the northern coast of Israel, resting at a depth of 1,800 meters (5,905 feet) on the seabed.

"This is both the first and the oldest ship found in the Eastern Mediterranean deep sea, ninety kilometers from the nearest shore. This is a world-class history-changing discovery: This find reveals to us as never before the ancient mariners' navigational skills," said Jacob Sharvit, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority's (IAA) marine unit, noting that it challenges previous academic assumptions that trade during the late Bronze Age was conducted by hugging coastlines within sight of land. "From this geographical point, only the horizon is visible all around. To navigate they probably used the celestial bodies, by taking sightings and angles of the sun and star positions." The IAA believes the ship likely sank due to a storm or pirate attack.

The wreck was initially spotted by submersible robots belonging to the oil and gas company Energean, during a routine survey for potential new energy sources off the Israeli coast. Dr. Karnit Bahartan Head of the Environmental Staff at Energean stated, "Cameras picked up what seemed to be a large pile of jugs heaped on the seafloor."

Due to the immense significance of this discovery, Energean assembled a team that collaborated closely with experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority to meticulously examine the shipwreck. They utilized their "Energean Star" vessel, equipped for deep-sea operations. The company's technicians devised a unique and intricate plan, even constructing a specialized tool to extract artifacts while minimizing the risk of damage to the entire assemblage. Over the course of two days at sea, the Energean team retrieved two vessels, each from opposite ends of the ship, to minimize disturbances to the intact assemblage of the boat and its cargo.

The two amphorae are believed to have been used by the Canaanite people who inhabited an area stretching from modern-day Turkey to Egypt. "The vessel type identified in the cargo was designed as the most efficient means of transporting relatively cheap and mass-produced products such as oil, wine, and other agricultural products such as fruit. Finding such a great quantity of amphorae on board one single ship is testimony to significant commercial ties between their country of origin and the ancient Near Eastern lands on the Mediterranean coast," says Sharvit.

The discovered jars are expected to be displayed at the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem this summer.

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Mazal tov! A clutch of 46 loggerhead sea turtles hatched Thursday at the Rosh Hanikra nature preserve on Israel's northern coast.

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The hatching was overseen by volunteers form the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and ranger Manor Guri, who made sure the baby turtles reached the sea safely.

Video: Manor Guri / INPA

Thursday's hatching marked the end of the mating season, which began in May. Pregnant female sea turtles leave the sea at night and lay groups of 70-140 eggs, which they bury. It takes about two months for the babies to hatch.

Researchers have learned that artificial light from seaside event venues, restaurants, and the promenade can confuse the hatchlings and cause them to crawl away from, rather than toward, the sea.

Loggerhead sea turtles, common on Israel's coast, are endangered. Hatchlings weigh 15-40 grams (half an ounce to 1.5 ounces), while adults weigh an average 90 kg. (198 pounds). Most loggerhead turtles live over 30 years, and some can live as long as 50.

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As a model of creative recycling in one of the most densely populated places on earth, a Gaza Strip cafe is serving up a healthy dose of environmentalism alongside its signature morning coffee.

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The beachside venue is part of the "Sea is Ours" co-operative, a complex built of reused wooden poles, plastic jugs, tires and broken bricks by local playwright Ali Mhana and a group of friends.

"My mother wanted me to become a physician," said Mhana, whose office there features a door off a refrigerator and windows that used to be washing machine doors.

Video: Reuters

"I don't have to be a doctor for humans. I can be the doctor of the sea, a doctor of the community that suffers several illnesses."

Dressed in a blue uniform, Mhana aims to ease at least some of those conditions through activities at a site that also houses a library, theatre and open event spaces where young and old can learn about conserving the environment.

"Jeans became plant vessels and a fan became a light decoration," said mother-of-four Haneen Assamak after learning how things she used to throw out can be reused.

"We planted in empty jars, and the bottles were filled with sand and lights," said Assamak, who now has a corner at home where she collects objects to be brought to Mhana for recycling.

"To me, this is happiness," she told Reuters, sitting on a colorful chair made of car tires.

Mhana said children visiting the site, which was provided by the Gaza municipality, instinctively understood the need to protect the environment.

"The recipe comes from them. When I ask what we can do to treat the sea, they say we can have a cleaning campaign, hold signs and go down and talk to people," he told Reuters.

A well as bringing in other material for recycling in lieu of payment, customers seeking to rent an open space for an event can also volunteer an hour of their time to help pick up litter at the beach.

A Gaza Environment Quality Authority official said 2,000 tons of solid waste is collected in the Gaza Strip every day. Over half of it comes from homes, and thousands of Palestinians earn money selling material to recycling factories.

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Egypt's president inaugurated a new naval base on the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday, the latest example of the government's military build-up.

The base is meant to "secure the country's northern and western front … and the maritime shipping routes," according to a statement by Abdel Fattah el-Sissi's office.

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The inauguration, aired on state TV, was also attended by Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and Mohammed al-Menfi, head of Libya's ruling presidential council.

The base is located in the Gargoub area, around 255 kilometers (160 miles) west of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

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Several environmental organizations and activists have called on the US special envoy for climate change John Kerry to thwart the implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed between companies in Israel and the United Arab Emirates for the transport of crude oil from the Arab Gulf to European markets.

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In a letter to Kerry, the signatories argued the agreement was "contrary to the new spirit of Israeli-US climate cooperation."

They noted the "environmental concerns relating to the likelihood of oil spills in the Gulf of Aqaba [that could endanger] the unique coral reefs of Eilat in Israel, the Sinai Peninsula [in] Egypt, and Aqaba in Jordan,"  according to a Times of Israel report. They warned the MOU would lead to an increased risk of Israel seeing a repeat of the February oil spill that left much of Israel's Mediterranean coast covered in tar.

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Activists also referenced a February phone call between Kerry and Israel's US and UN envoy Gilad Erdan, who formerly held the environmental protection portfolio, in which the two apparently discussed progress on working toward a zero-carbon economy.

Critics of the letter point out that greater regional cooperation between the Jewish state and its Gulf neighbors could increasingly sideline Iran.

From a geopolitical perspective, Israel and its Abraham Accord partners, the UAE and Bahrain, are looking to enhance energy security given the existential threat presented by the Islamic Republic.

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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Recent reports suggest that the United States is disturbed by aspects of the Israeli-Iranian shadow war raging across the region – in this case, at sea. It seems reasonable to conclude that Washington is trying to lower tensions it fears can spoil attempts to negotiate a new nuclear agreement with Tehran.

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American sources told The Wall Street Journal in recent days that since 2019, Israel allegedly attacked 12 ships illegally carrying Iranian oil to Syria, using weapons such as limpet mines to damage the vessels.

The report came amid signs of a possible escalation between Israel and Iran on the seas, suggesting that the information was designed to send a signal to Israel to cool down the alleged maritime operations.

It also surfaced at about the time Iran accused Israel of attacking an Iranian container ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea last week named the Shahr e Kord, causing a fire.

That attack came days after Israel said Iran was behind an attack on an Israeli-owned cargo ship, the MV Helios Ray, in the Gulf of Oman.

Israel's alleged covert campaign at sea is part of a much larger campaign, dubbed by the defense establishment as the "campaign between the wars," designed to prevent the radical Iranian axis from building up its military and terrorist power in the region but to do so without crossing the threshold of regional war.

It is a delicate balancing act that has enabled Israel to curb alarmingly ambitious Iranian schemes, pioneered by the former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, to use the air, land and sea to flood Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and other areas with precision-guided missiles, weapons factories, well-armed militias and the creation of new "rings of fire" around Israel.

Jerusalem has created a powerful intelligence-gathering machine that is able to detect many of these activities in real-time and disrupt them, using an array of precision airstrikes, special operations, cyber technology and other means. Most of these activities remain hidden from public view.

Cash payments from Damascus to Beirut

So why have oil tankers that are moving Iranian oil to Syria become an alleged target?

According to a recent analysis by Yediot Aronoth's veteran military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai, Iranian oil-smuggling to Syria began even before the Trump administration placed sanctions on Iranian oil exports in May 2018 (when Trump withdrew from the former nuclear agreement), and before the United States slapped sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime for its countless war crimes.

However, since May 2018, when the Iranians faced restrictions on transferring funds through the international financial network, they faced a new obstacle: How to get paid for smuggled oil to countries such as Syria?

They found a work-around: The Assad regime began paying its oil debts directly to Iran's proxy Hezbollah, enabling Iran to launder its terror financing in new, convenient ways, and to continue its backing of Hezbollah's force build-up programs, according to Ben-Yishai.

To get around America's Caesar Act, which bans international transactions with Syrian banks, as well as with Lebanese banks that work with their Syrian counterparts, the Assad regime was able to smuggle cash payments from Damascus to Beirut with ease.

As part of this scheme, oil tankers are loaded up at Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf or at Qeshm island in the Strait of Hormuz and then proceeded to sail via various routes toward the Syrian coastline, where, while still at sea, they rendezvous with Syrian ships and transfer their oil cargo, or alternatively, directly dock at Syria's Latakia or Tartus ports and unload their oil cargo.

With these journeys forming a key part of Iran's radical axis financing, Israel may have decided that as part of its campaign between the wars, it was time to disrupt this Hezbollah financing channel.

The Iranians, likely fed up with such operations, retaliated at the end of February by targeting the Israeli-owned cargo ship, and Israel may have decided to boost its own deterrence by targeting the Shahr e Kord in response.

'Part of Iranian pirate activities to circumvent sanctions'

This apparent escalation seems to have set off alarm bells in the Biden administration, likely resulting in the leaked information to the Wall Street Journal about this previously unknown aspect of the campaign between the wars.

A question that remains unanswered is how the ecological disaster caused by an oil spill off the Israeli coastline in late February – which has been linked by Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry to a ship illegally smuggling oil from Iran to Syria – fits into this picture.

Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said Iran was behind the spill, accusing it of "ecological terrorism," though Israel's defense establishment has not confirmed this is indeed the case.

Meanwhile, dispelling rumors that Israel itself was accidentally responsible for the spill as part of its campaign against Iranian oil tankers, Defense Minister Benny Gantz firmly dismissed this theory.

Presumably relying on an array of intelligence reports, Gantz said on Sunday, "I can tell you emphatically that Israel is not responsible for the oil spill that caused the considerable damage along the coast."

The cause of the spill, therefore, remains a mystery.

"We are moving into the water arena. This is one of the arenas of conflict between Iran and Israel," Professor Uzi Rabi, director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, observed on Sunday.

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"This is part of Iran's pirate activities at sea to circumvent sanctions and sell oil," he said, adding that Hezbollah and Iranian militias in Syria gain the return benefit.

The wider context, he said, is that Iran is gathering negotiating "bargaining chips" ahead of talks with Washington. Describing the "Iranian paradox," Rabi said that "the worse things are inside Iran, the more they 'purchase' bargaining chips on the outside."

As the region waits to see how Washington and Tehran engage, Israel's defensive shadow war can be expected to continue, even though it might be adjusted to avoid angering America at this sensitive time.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The Israeli military announced Friday that it had conducted a joint naval exercise with Greece and Cyprus, in the latest sign of increased cooperation among three countries that increasingly view Turkey as a rival in the Mediterranean Sea.

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It said the "Noble Dina" exercise, which was led by Israel and also included France, covered "anti-submarine procedures, search and rescue scenarios, and a scenario simulating battle between ships."

The exercise was concluded on Thursday.

"Over the past week, the navy led a large-scale exercise in which it implemented capabilities in underwater warfare, search and rescue, convoy escort, and surface combat," Rear Admiral Eyal Harel, the head of Israeli naval operations, said.

"These exercises are of paramount importance in strengthening the navy's connection with foreign fleets who share common interests," he added.

Israel, Greece, and Cyprus have taken a number of steps in recent months to cement ties, including advancing plans to build a 2,000-megawatt undersea electricity cable and a 1,900-kilometer (1,300-mile) undersea gas pipeline. The three countries' defense ministers met in November and agreed to increase military cooperation.

Greece and Cyprus are embroiled in a dispute with Turkey, which has sent gas prospecting vessels into waters claimed by Greece and drilling ships into an area where Cyprus claims exclusive rights. Although tensions have since eased, the tension brought North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies Greece and Turkey close to open conflict last year.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, has expressed interest in sharing a maritime border with Israel at the Cypriots' expense.

The Turkish leader portrays himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause and has provided political support to Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group that seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. A number of Hamas leaders are based in Turkey, and Erdogan met with the group's top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in December 2019.

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In a possible sign of warming relations between Turkey and Israel, an aid to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Dr. Hakan Yurdakul, together with Israeli Foreign Ministry representatives, attended a European Jewish Parliament conference on Wednesday focusing on a renewed agenda between the former allies. Yurdakul is a board member of the Turkish Presidency's Committee for Economic Policies.

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In his address to the conference, Yurdakul said both countries would benefit from the establishment of an economic committee for regional cooperation to explore areas of mutual interests "for a better future."

Other Turkish representatives included Dr. Nurcan Özkaplan, a professor of history at Yildirim Beyazit University in Ankara. In her address, Özkaplan provided a detailed background of Turkish-Jewish relations and cooperation during the Ottoman Empire and explored the possibility of creating a common future in our region.

Also in attendance was Moris Reyna, the former president of the Union of Turkish Jews in Israel.

The conference took place just a few hours after Şalom, a Jewish weekly newspaper published in Turkey, ran an interview with former admiral Cihat Yayci, a close confidant of Erdogan and the father of the "blue homeland" doctrine (pertaining to Ankara's maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean), who said that "it is in the interest of Turkey and Israel to re-normalize relations."

Yayci called on Israel to agree to the proposal of a shared maritime border in the Mediterranean Sea, as first reported by Israel Hayom. A more detailed version of the plan was published in the Turkeyscope monthly journal published by the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.

Yayci gave the interview after Turkey suffered another diplomatic blow when Egypt and Greece agreed this week to disagree about proposed areas for gas and oil drilling in the Mediterranean Sea.

This occurred five days after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey could reach an agreement with Egypt on a maritime border.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said that the dispute over one of Egypt's three drilling areas was "technical" and had been resolved. According to reports, teams from Egypt met and re-drew maritime borders for the problematic area, a deal that directly affects Turkey, since the Turks claim ownership of the area delineated by Greece and Egypt.

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Israel has targeted at least a dozen Iranian oil ships bound for Syria since 2019, according to a new report published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

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Multiple unnamed officials from the US and the Middle East told the WSJ that the vessels had been hit out of concern that oil profits from the cargo would go to fund extremism in the Middle East.

The strikes reportedly began in late 2019, employing weaponry such as water mines as ships traveled from the Red Sea and other parts of the region towards Syria.

US officials also claimed that some of the cargo carried Iranian weaponry destined for the Syrian government.

Israel has not commented on the WSJ report.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has admitted that the IDF has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria, mostly targeting Iranian military infrastructure and Hezbollah units.

The fresh reporting potentially unveils a new dimension in Israel's efforts to stop Iran from enlarging its influence in the region and comes amid soaring tensions between the two bitter enemies as the Biden administration looks to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Earlier Thursday, social media users reported an attack on an Iranian cargo ship in the Mediterranean, which they claimed had been ignored by state media outlets. Discourse on Iranian social media accused Israel of the attack.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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