The US Senate decisively rejected three resolutions Wednesday night that sought to block specific weapons sales to Israel, according to NBC News. The measures, spearheaded by Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, faced strong bipartisan opposition.

The resolutions, which targeted sales of tank rounds, mortar rounds, and bomb guidance kits for use in Gaza, were defeated by significant margins, with 78, 79, and 80 senators voting against the respective measures, NBC News reported.

Prior to the vote at 8 p.m., Sanders took to X to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stating he "has violated international & US law, violating human rights and blocking humanitarian aid."

In his Senate floor speech, Sanders emphasized that the resolutions "would not affect any of the systems Israel uses to defend itself from incoming attacks," focusing instead on offensive weapons.

This evening, I voted to reaffirm the United States' commitment to the people of Israel and to ensure they have the resources to defend themselves from Iran and their terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

I will always stand proudly to support our strongest ally.

— Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) November 21, 2024

"As I have said many, many times: Israel had the absolute right to respond to that horrific Hamas attack, as any other country would. I don't think anybody here in the United States Senate disagrees with that," Sanders said. "But Prime Minister Netanyahu's extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged an all-out war against the Palestinian people."

Several Democrats openly opposed the resolutions. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada declared on X that she "will always stand proudly to support our strongest ally." Her colleague, Senator Jacky Rosen, echoed this sentiment, stating that "Israel is our ally in the Middle East & we must do everything we can to help it defend itself."

While Israel is being attacked on all fronts, it should not be under attack in the halls of Congress.

Israel's enemies are our enemies.

Instead of blocking key weapons, we must provide Israel with the tools to demolish Iran-backed Hamas and send a clear message to Tehran.

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 21, 2024

Republicans unanimously opposed the resolutions. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa wrote on X, "While Israel is being attacked on all fronts, it should not be under attack in the halls of Congress." Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana added on the platform that "Limiting Israel's ability to defend itself helps its enemies."

Israel maintains that destroying the Hamas terror organization is essential to prevent attacks similar to the Oct. 7 massacre, where terrorists killed 1,2000 Israelis and kidnapped over 250. As of Nov. 21, 101 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, 36 of whom have been declared dead.

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In the ongoing dispute over weapons shipments between the United States and Israel, two possibilities emerge: either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lying, or the Americans are being dishonest. After careful examination, the latter seems more likely – the Americans are obscuring the truth.

Multiple shipments of various types of ammunition to Israel have been delayed since February – that is four months. This far exceeds the single weapons shipment President Joe Biden mentioned regarding operations in Rafah.

The delayed shipments include artillery, tank and air combat ammunition – weapons Israel has already paid for – as well as thousands of JDAM kits that convert unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions. Netanyahu, not always known for strict adherence to facts, accurately describes the situation.

His unprecedented move – releasing a video directly criticizing Washington. – became necessary after months of quiet diplomacy failed to resolve the issue, effectively freezing weapons deliveries.

The actual delays stem from State Department officials who are not processing the required export permits for these shipments to Israel.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's trip to the US will address this issue, which highlights Israel's significant military and diplomatic dependence on America, as revealed during the ongoing war.

The benefits of US support for Israel are clear: $4 billion in annual military aid, continuous ammunition supply during war, and international backing against hostile entities like Iran, Russia and the United Nations. However, the drawbacks are less discussed: Israel's limited freedom to act according to its own judgment, both operationally during the war and diplomatically in its aftermath.

The logical goal is a dramatic increase in domestic production – both in volume and variety – and liberation from contractual restrictions that prevent Israel from independently developing additional weapon types.

While dependence on the US won't disappear overnight, efforts to reduce it should have begun yesterday. Israel has already taken some steps to increase its future autonomy.

Some may ridicule this ambition as unrealistic, but it's not far-fetched. Similar skepticism surrounded the gradual phasing out of US civilian aid to Israel, which no longer exists today.

Reducing military aid will take years, but it's the right path. Simultaneously, Israel must break the "siege" on weapons supply by approaching countries it wouldn't normally consider, as it did during its first War of Independence.

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One of the possible future war scenarios presented to the political leadership a few months ago described Hezbollah firing thousands of lethal missiles a day at Israeli population centers, damaging strategic sites, destroying hundreds of homes, and causing heavy losses and wounded – all against a backdrop of chaos, with Arab Israeli rioting that would make the events of last May look like a child's game.

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The scenario envisioned Hezbollah trying to capture territory and communities in northern Israel, while Hamas in Gaza would be shooting rockets at population centers in the south of the country. One of the cabinet ministers at the presentation asked when the US last restocked its emergency ammunition supplies in Israel, which Israel also relies on during wars. He mentioned that in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, European countries refused to allow American planes carrying weapons to Israel to refuel within their borders.

The minister also mentioned that during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the Obama administration prevented weapons from being sent to Israel and thinned out Israel's reserves of rockets and mortars, claiming that the Israeli ammunition, which had come from the US, was hitting and killing civilians in the Gaza Strip. The same minister also wondered how the US would act in a scenario such as this, if Israel were forced to defend itself.

These recollections resurfaced this week following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the weakness the US and the west demonstrated in countering it. In sidebar chats, the ministers wondered if the US was still an ally on which Israel could depend, and to what extent. Is the long-discussed possibility of a defense pact still relevant? And will Israel's limited cooperation with NATO, of which it is not a member, help it if and when the country is in distress?

"The US is weakened and withdrawing into itself," says Professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert on the US and international relations at Bar-Ilan University. "The process that began during Obama's presidency continued under Trump and is growing stronger under Biden. Obama said it as clearly as possible – American cannot and does not want to be the world's policeman.

"The US is changing," Gilboa assesses. "And not to our [Israel's] benefit. The fact that it is increasingly becoming a country of minorities – Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians – works against us. The general American public, including the Jewish public, particularly the young people, are less and less committed to Israel. Even the Evangelicals aren't what they used to be. Support for us has waned, and will wane further.

"As someone who has been examining US conduct for decades, I am now seeing significant weakness," Gilboa says. "Trump, I remind everyone, went against NATO and the EU, and only a few days ago said Putin was a genius. Trump's America also allowed the Turks to run roughshod over the Kurds in northern Syria, which was seen as an abandonment of its Kurdish friends, who were allies in the war against Islamic State."

Q: Is Israel an exception to the process you are describing?

"Right now, we are. They are still investing in us, a lot. In the longer term, what I described is the true direction, and we should internalize that."

Q: Only two years ago, there was talk here about a defense pact between us and the Americans. Is that still relevant?

"The possibility of a defense pact comes up from time to time as a cure and as compensation for territorial concessions. As long as 40 years ago, when I was managing a drill at the Israel National Defense College that played out Israel conceding territory in exchange for international commitments – I thought that trading territory for a pact with the US was foolishness of the first rank. We don't need American soldiers. We need weapons. Even now, Israel isn't getting all the weapons it needs. The Americans are holding up shipments of refueling aircraft, which could be relevant if we take action against Iran, and aren't supplying us with bunker busters, like we asked for."

'A shaky wall'

"A defense pact wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on," Gilboa thinks. "If there is a pact and they don't want to help, they won't. And if there is an acute need for their aid and they do want to help, they will, even without a pact."

Q: Are the defense and security understandings currently in place between Israel and the US something we can count on?

"Less and less. The West and Biden thought that the age of wars was over, and under their noses a war started that is reminiscent of World War II. Luckily for us, we don't currently have a defense pact with the US or NATO. They'd tell the Israeli Air Force, come save the Baltic states. A defense pact adds commitments we don't need, and could limit us, such as on the Golan Heights or in Gaza. Imagine what would have happened if [Menachem] Begin had needed to consult with the US and get its permission before deciding to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor. The Americans would very likely have torpedoed that."

Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon Hacohen, former head of the IDF's Military Colleges, is one of the strongest opponents of a defense pact with the US, or any other dependence on it. Such a pact, he says, would "completely bind Israel to American interests."

Even now, Hacohen says, "the US wants to see a puppet government here [in Israel], in the sense that we would comply with their view of Israel's defense needs and forgo our vital interests according to their wishes. Currently, even before any defense pact, the Americans aren't allowing us to build in Atarot in northern Jerusalem or Pisgat Zeev or in Judea and Samaria, which are not only the homeland, but also crucial security zones for us, existential needs. Imagine what would happen if we were to bind ourselves to closer agreements with them. A military alliance would force us to take risks and tie us down to constant pressure to make deals that involve withdrawing from territories."

Hacohen does not trust the US: "Reality is dynamic, and the struggle is constant. Interests change. Look at how the Druze have survived, by sticking to the aphorism, 'We are with the wall that stands strong.' No one wants to lean on a shaky wall."

Q: Is the US of today a shaky wall?

"Yes, and it didn't start today. They didn't help us in the War of Independence. In the Sinai campaign they forced us to make an unconditional withdrawal, which eventually led us into the [1967] Six-Day War, where the victory was so quick they didn't have time to intervene. In the Yom Kippur War we could  have achieved more, if [Henry] Kissinger hadn't interfered. Under [Benjamin] Netanyahu, they tried to get us to pull out of most of Judea and Samaria and force us, through Gen. John Allen, the former commander of the international forces in Afghanistan, to accept a western contingent of forces in the Jordan Valley. The US has also left Israel pretty much on its own in the fight to keep Iran from entrenching itself in Syria."

Q: You don't see any advantage to a defense agreement with the US?

"The Arabs might take into account that America supposedly stands behind us and will be somewhat more deterred, but we would pay too high a price for what we would get."

Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, former head of the National Security Council and head of the Military Intelligence Directorate's Research Department, and now a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, suggests not dismissing – even now – the US's standing in the Middle East and the understandings and exist between the US and Israel.

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"The US is still the strongest country in the world. It sends us billions of dollars each year, and is the foreign country with the most forces in the Middle East. We don't have a defense pact with them, but when it comes to intelligence, we cooperate with them and break down imaginary barriers. There aren't many countries in the world that cooperate with the US on research and technology and military industry like Israel does. They are developing the Arrow 3 and David's Sling [missile defense systems] with us, and there is also the law to preserve Israel's qualitative military advantage that requires the administration to report every year if and how it is preserving our edge. I know of at least one instance in which they didn't sell an Arab country a certain kind of weapon because we convinced them it would affect our qualitative advantage," Amidror says.

'Americans, go home'

Amidror mentions an agreement between the US and Israel, which is designed to allow the Americans to store ammunition in the Middle East, including Israel. "Should an event require it, the US can use those munitions, and if Israel finds itself in an emergency situation, it would be easier for them to allow us to use them as backup. We just need to make sure they don't become outdated," he says.

Q: Is the US agreeing to our requests to purchase advanced weaponry?

"There is no country in the world that sells all the weapons it develops. We also produce [weapons] that we will never sell to others. Countries always keep something for themselves. They agreed to sell us the midair refueling aircraft, which still aren't in production. I don't know of any holdup on the American side."

Q: Bunker busters?

"I don't know of any delay on those, either. They have a giant bomb that we can't carry on our aircraft, so we don't have it."

Q: A defense pact with the US?

"Israel was built on the binding statement of its founders that we will fight on our own, and will not ask foreign soldiers, especially not Americans, to defend us. A defense pact of the kind you mention would hurt our commitment to defend ourselves and one of our strongest points in dealing with the US. Israel shouldn't do that to itself, and moreover, we want to retain our freedom of action, and have a different approach from most other countries. To prevent threats against us from becoming an actuality, we take action in places, at times and in ways that no other country does, do crazy things. According to foreign reports, we are constantly carrying out strikes in other states. What country does things like that? If there were a defense pact, there would be support but also commitments, and we couldn't go nuts when we needed to, and wouldn't be free to act. So there are more disadvantages than advantages to an alliance like that."

Q: Is the US, our great friend, still an entity that Israel can count on in times of trouble?

"There is a discrepancy between expectations and what the Americans give. The Americans, the policeman of the world, have been paying the price for 100 years. There is almost no war in the world that didn't cost the Americans and when it was over, all they got was, 'Yankees, go home!' In the past 100 years, the US hasn't kept a scrap of land anywhere it fought. Here, the Left thinks that the Americans are colonialists, and the Right – that they aren't reliable, but I don't know of any country that had an alliance with the US – an actual alliance, not just a friendship – whose aid the US didn't come to.

"The US didn't have a defense pact with Ukraine, or with the government in Afghanistan, or with the Kurds in Turkey. There were understandings, there was friendship, but no binding alliance, in writing. So then the US decides if and how to help friends in distress. At the same time, US demographics are changing dramatically … when we take it all into account, it's easier to understand why America, which is internally divided, is less thrilled about carrying the burden."

Q: Is that the direction? The US is weak, and will get weaker?

"More than the US is getting weaker, it has less desire to use the power it does have. What is weakened is the willingness to use its enormous military forces. When we look at the last 100 years and the processes currently taking place in the US, we understand why."

Q: So it's inappropriate to expect the US and NATO to help a friend in trouble with Russia?

"As long as there's no alliance, no country has any obligation to any other country. We won't send military forces to defend a country that's only a friend, either. Europe has no real ability to help. They barely have a military. The Germans only have a few hundred tanks. France has no real ability to deploy in the world, and neither do we. The only country in the world that is capable of intervening for long periods is the US, and to some extent Russia. The Americans are built for it. They can move their air force. All the sailors in the Israeli Navy would fit on one US aircraft carrier, and there would still be space left over."

Q: In light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, how does all that affect Israel?

"Very little, if at all. We aren't part of Europe or NATO, despite our ties with them and our special relationship with the US. We should aspire to maintain and upgrade that relationship, but not to the level of mutual defense agreements, because they entail a lot of disadvantages for us. Our strength – at home and abroad – is that we fight independently, and so are also independent when it comes to our decision making and operations."

Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, formerly head of the Military Intelligence Research Division and a former director-general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry, has a unique perspective on Israel's defense and security relations with the US. Kuperwasser used to serve as the IDF's intelligence attaché to Washington, and currently focuses on questions like these as a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Kuperwasser plays down expectations: "If Israel gets into real trouble, the Israel expectation will be for the US to back us up diplomatically and provide massive military aid in the form of weapons. Not American soldiers by any stretch of the imagination. It's not good for us, and not good for them," he says.

"One of the main problems is that there used to be an unwritten understanding that Israel would handle short-range threats from neighboring countries on its own, while the US would take care to thwart serious threats to us from countries farther away. Right now, it doesn't look like the Americans are living up to their part of that unwritten understanding."

"Over the years, it's also become more complicated because the more distant threats are connected to the ones closer to us. Iran is in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and to some extent in Gaza, and the distinction between near and far has gotten complicated. Even when the distinctions were clearer, the Americans wouldn't always take it upon themselves to deal with distant threats to us. Israel was forced to destroy the Iraqi nuclear reactor on its own, because the Americans weren't taking care of it. Today, the most significant distant threat is Iran. The Americans argue that they are dealing with it and declaring that they won't accept a nuclear Iran, but it's not clear what that actually means," Kuperwasser says.

Q: Practically speaking, what can we expect from the US in the case of a war on multiple fronts?

"First, we need to depend on ourselves. And after we've said that, the US is our best friend when it comes to defense. They disappointed us when it came to the nuclear reactors in Syria and Iraq, and also when we were kept from carrying out an action that would have delayed Iran's missile project in the 1990s and a few other times. On the other hand, they helped us – if late – with weapons during the Yom Kippur War, and when they put Patriot missiles at our disposal during the Gulf War, and more.

"At the end of Trump's term, he transferred the military cooperation between Israel and the US – which used to fall under EUCOM – to CENTCOM. That means that now we're more integrated into the American plans in the Middle East, and through that can also cooperate with other armies in the pragmatic Arab states, like the [United Arab] Emirates and Saudi Arabia. That increases our forces to a certain extent."

Q: In light of this special relationship, will the US rely on us at a time of crisis?

"The US acts according to its own security and diplomatic needs, and to a certain extent, takes those of its allies or friends into account. It passed the military aid law and in 1999 made an agreement with us to found a strategic planning group. There are other good connections and understandings, but the truth is, even when it came to countries with which the US had actual pacts, when it didn't want to take action, it didn't. The latest example, of course, is Ukraine. The US and Britain signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 and committed to helping Ukraine if it were attacked in exchange for Ukraine giving up its stocks of nuclear weapons. But when that was tested, Ukraine was left on its own."

Q: So a military alliance with the US wouldn't guarantee us anything.

"On the whole, that's right. Trump and Netanyahu brought up the idea of an alliance like that two years ago – in my opinion, because they believed it would help them get elected. If it were to come to pass, the agreement would need to be worded in a manner that would be less binding for both sides, and would leave them room to act. I'm not sure that would be possible.

"The idea of a defense pact between Israel and the US has been raised in the past, and rejected because neither side wanted to take on undesirable commitments that would restrict their freedom of action or oblige them to take action in military contexts that they did not view as vital or justified.

"Beyond that, the sense was that defense and diplomatic cooperation between the two sides was already at a very high level, so any advantages of a defense alliance wouldn't justify the changes it would entail to our defense outlook. Today, given the positions of the current US administration, which are very far from the Israeli view, or that of the previous administration, especially on the Iranian issue – the possibility of a defense alliance is even less relevant."

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Satellite imagery of the Syrian commercial Mediterranean port at Latakia shows the aftermath of an airstrike on Tuesday attributed to Israel, and of "astonishingly precise" attacks, The War Zone reported on Wednesday.

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Analyzing images provided of the port from Planet Labs, the report noted that the strikes, which targeted arms and munitions shipments according to the report, sparked a large fire at the facility, which required several hours to bring under control by local firefighters.

"The satellite image shows damage to multiple shipping containers, seemingly as the result of four separate weapons impacts in different parts of the facility," the report stated.

"As of today, palls of smoke were still visible overhead the port, although the overall damage appeared to be generally restricted to the container terminal itself, with no apparent harm done to the area immediately surrounding the port. Surprisingly little is visible in terms of cratering, too. The attack looks like it was astonishingly precise, striking individual or small groups of containers only," it said.

Aftermath of Israel's bombardment of Syrian port seen in satellite imagery:https://t.co/TdwvoZFCng

— The War Zone (@thewarzonewire) December 30, 2021

Former Israeli national security adviser Chuck Freilich told The Wall Street Journal that "If the strikes in Latakia were, indeed, carried out by Israel, they were presumably designed mostly to prevent the buildup of [the] Iranian's capabilities in Syria," adding that "there is a secondary benefit of reminding the Iranians that Israel can strike at any time."

On Tuesday, Syrian state media said an Israeli missile strike on the container yard of Syria's main commercial port caused fires and extensive damage.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Saudi Arabia is allegedly engaged in domestic production of its own ballistic missiles with assistance from China, a report published Thursday said.

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Sources familiar with the matter disclosed to CNN that United States intelligence departments believe Saudi Arabia to be manufacturing missiles at one site, at least.

Two unnamed sources said a number of classified US intelligence briefings revealed that China and Saudi Arabia have traded sensitive ballistic missile technology.

A representative from the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, when asked for a statement on the matter, told CNN the two countries "have maintained friendly cooperation in all fields, including in the field of military trade."

"Such cooperation does not violate any international law and does not involve the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," the Chinese official added.

Satellite images taken of a suspected missile production site near Dawadmi, Saudi Arabia revealed the presence of a burn pit.

The pit is believed to be used in disposal of the solid-propellant left over from missile production.

Analysts from Middlebury Institute of International Studies told CNN that this is "the first unambiguous evidence that the facility is operating to produce missiles."

Though much remains unclear, analysts say weapons produced at the facility could be designed in the same style as China's missiles, given the site was constructed with help from Beijing.

However, Saudi Arabia reached out to a number of other states regarding ballistic missile development, which means the weapons produced at the site could also be of a completely different build.

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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Head of the Shin Bet security agency Ronen Bar has recently made a secret visit to Jordan, where he met with leaders of the Jordanian security apparatus.

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The trip to Jordan marks Bar's third visit with counterparts in the Middle East since he entered the position five and a half weeks ago. He has also visited Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.

Recent years have marked a low point for Israeli-Jordanian ties, due to an awkward relationship between Jordan's King Abdullah and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This March, tensions hit a new peak when a spat over carrying weapons led to the cancellation of Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein's planned visit to the Temple Mount.

In response, Jordan refused to allow an Emirati aircraft to take off for Israel, where Netanyahu had been scheduled to board so he could travel to the United Arab Emirates.

However, despite this crisis and others, Israel's security and defense organizations – the IDF, the Mossad, and the Shin Bet – continued to work closely with their opposite numbers in Jordan. Former Shin Bet director Nadav Argaman visited Jordan a few times, and Bar chose to make Amman one of his first official visits to underscore how important he sees Israel's ties with the kingdom.

Israel shares its longest border with Jordan, and it is largely unfenced. Close security and defense cooperation serves the interests of both countries, preventing terrorists and weapons from entering the West Bank and Arab Israeli communities from the east as well as keeping pro-Iranian elements from approaching Israel's eastern border from Iraq. Jordan benefits from additional stabilization and help dealing with its own threats. One such example is Jordan's successful handling of the threat posed by the Islamic State.

Recently, there has been a rise in the number of attempts to smuggle weapons from Jordan into Israel. Israel's security establishment attributes this to growing demand for weapons, which has led to increased prices, as well as greater obstacles to weapons smuggling from Egypt and Lebanon. Bar's meeting in Amman probably addressed this issue, since representatives of both sides would naturally have discussed various terrorist threats.

Last week, Bar was in Egypt with National Security Adviser Eyal Haluta. He has also visited Ramallah, where he met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and heads of the PA security apparatus. The Shin Bet continues to maintain close ties with PA security forces, and over the years, these ties have helped smooth out a number of rough patches in relations between Israel and the PA.

Bar is not the only Israeli official to visit Jordan recently. In the past few months, President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have all made secret visits to Jordan, which preferred to keep the meetings at a low profile.

However, some high-ranking officials think Jordan could adopt a more welcoming stance to cooperation with Israel, especially now that the two countries have signed a deal that will increase the amount of water Israel supplies to Jordan.

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Thousands of 5.56-caliber bullets were stolen from an IDF reserve barracks in the north of the country, in the Ein Zeitim area. As is customary in such instances, the IDF has launched an investigation.

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On Jan. 2, more than 90,000 bullets were stolen from a bunker at an IDF training base at Tze'elim; on Jan. 6 a vehicle was stolen from the Tze'elim parking lot; on Feb. 3 communications equipment were stolen from a container at Tze'elim; on Feb. 5, general military equipment was stolen during a break-in at the Natan Camp near Beersheba; and on Feb. 7 more ammunition was stolen from the Sde Teiman base.

In 2020, about 80 weapons were stolen from IDF bases on the Israel-Lebanon border. In 2017, 33 weapons were stolen from the Sdei Teiman base.

Consequently, the IDF has established new procedures and budgeted millions of shekels for improving security at IDF bases, which have been targeted by criminal elements.

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On Wednesday, pro-Iranian militias inside Syria explicitly threatened a "harsh response" to the attack in a statement issued by the joint operations room of organizations operating inside Syria.

In the statement, the militias claimed four armed members of their organization were killed and several others were wounded in an Israel Defense Forces attack on the Homs region.

According to their statement, which appeared in the Hezbollah-aligned news site Al Mayadeen, the attack was launched from the Jordan-Iraq-Syria border triangle region controlled by the US. It targeted a militia recruitment site as well as other facilities used by the organizations in the country's east.

Meanwhile, the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria Thursday evening reported that four Israeli F-16 fighter jets had carried out the attack adjacent to the city of Palmyra.  

According to the Russian center, the Russian military chose not to use anti-aircraft missiles to thwart the attack due to the presence of two civilian planes, one flying to Beirut from Baghdad and another flying to Damascus, and Syrian concerns those aircraft might be hit in an attack.

The attack in Syria comes just one week before Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi to discuss diplomatic and security-related issues, among other things.

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One day after the 15th anniversary of the breakout of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the Israel Defense Forces published the coordinates of a building military intelligence units have identified as a weapons warehouse located approximately 25 meters (yards) from a school.

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In a statement, the IDF accused the Iranian Shiite proxy of deliberately utilizing civilian structures for what are effectively military purposes. It added that Hezbollah intended to use the material in the weapons depot against both Israeli soldiers and citizens.

Our intelligence can reveal that Hezbollah has built a weapons warehouse just 25 meters from a school in the village of Ebba, Lebanon.

This endangers the lives of 300 children who attend the school.

Hezbollah doesn't want you to RT this,
but these innocent children need you to pic.twitter.com/FJyEyJZrIu

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 14, 2021

On Twitter Wednesday, the IDF shared an aerial image of the alleged warehouse that shows the school where 300 students study just across the street.

In its statement, the IDF said the depot was one of thousands of similar targets positioned to endanger the lives of innocent Lebanese citizens. The IDF said it would do everything in its ability to avoid unnecessary casualties but would not hesitate to take out active targets.

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US President Joe Biden's administration has told Congress it is proceeding with more than $23 billion in weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates, including advanced F-35 aircraft, armed drones and other equipment, congressional aides said on Tuesday.

A State Department spokesperson said the administration would move forward with the proposed sales to the UAE, "even as we continue reviewing details and consulting with Emirati officials" related to the use of the weapons.

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The Trump administration told Congress in November it had approved the US sale to the UAE as a side deal to the Abraham Accords, a US-brokered agreement in September in which the UAE agreed to normalize relations with Israel.

The $23.37 billion package contained products from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp, including 50 F-35 Lighting II aircraft, up to 18 MQ-9B Unmanned Aerial Systems and a package of air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions.

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