Israel signs $5.2bn deal to get F-15 jets as part of US military aid

Israel, which continues to strike both the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon, has announced signing 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 on Thursday, 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 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 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,

More than 50 countries press UN for arms embargo on Israel

More than 50 countries have issued a joint letter calling on the United Nations to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

At the end of September, Israel said it had received a new package of US military aid worth $8.7 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 to Israel.

In 2023, 69% 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%. 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 October 7, 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.

The regime’s year-long bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed more than 43,400 Palestinians, 

Israel kills 40 in new strikes against Lebanon; targets Beirut in fresh aggression

The Israeli regime kills at least 40 people during new airstrikes against eastern Lebanese areas, besides targeting the country’s capital Beirut with fresh acts of aggression.

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.

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