US envoy visits Israel to calm tension with Hezbollah; Israel’s defence exports hit record

Israel’s defence exports reached a record last year as wars including those in Ukraine and Gaza raise the spectre of a global arms race.

The Israeli military said it had started a daily 11-hour “tactical pause” along a key route in southern Gaza to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid.

US envoy in Israel in bid to calm situation with Hezbollah

US envoy Amos Hochstein has travelled to the Middle East in a bid to ease tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, which are threatening to spiral into a full-blown war across the Lebanese border.

Hezbollah has traded fire with Israel almost daily since the 7 October attack by Hamas militants on the south of the country, which triggered the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Both groups are backed by Iran and designated as terrorist organisations by the US.

Read more: Israel ups war rhetoric as Hezbollah’s attacks raise alarm

Hochstein, who has visited Israel and Lebanon several times in recent months to try to mediate a resolution, held separate meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and defence minister Yoav Gallant on Monday. He was to also hold talks with opposition leader Yair Lapid before going on to Beirut, the Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported.

“In their meeting, they discussed the relentless attacks and rocket fire from Hezbollah, instigated by Iran, toward Israel’s northern towns and cities, and the urgent need to restore security to the northern border and allow residents to return safely to their homes,” Herzog’s office said.

The US and France are leading efforts to broker a deal to ensure Hezbollah and Israel don’t go to war.

Hochstein was planning to meet Benny Gantz, chairman of the opposition National Unity Party, a spokesperson for the party said. Gantz joined Netanyahu’s emergency government following the Hamas attack in October, but resigned last week after criticising the prime minister’s strategy and accusing him of not doing enough to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza.

Netanyahu is now dissolving the three-member war Cabinet that was formed at Gantz’s request, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said.

“With his departure from the government, there is no more need for this extra branch,” the spokesperson said in a video briefing, citing a statement from the prime minister. “The security Cabinet is granted authority by the state to make decisions together with the full Cabinet.”

Hezbollah rockets and drones have caused significant damage and casualties in Israel in recent months, and authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of residents from towns and villages in the north of the country. Israel has responded with air strikes and artillery fire into Lebanon, and assassinated several leaders of the group. Its strikes have killed hundreds of people in Lebanon, most of them members of Hezbollah.

“Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation — one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Sunday. “Israel has a duty to defend the people of Israel. We will fulfil that duty.”

Read more: Why Hezbollah is more worrying to Israel than Hamas: QuickTake

Israel is demanding that Hezbollah withdraw northward, away from the border, but the Islamist group has said it won’t negotiate without a ceasefire in Gaza, which remains elusive. Under a United Nations Security Council Resolution following the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, armed fighters from Hezbollah are not permitted to enter a designated border area.

Hochstein led negotiations between Israel and Lebanon in 2022 and resolved a maritime dispute, in what was a rare diplomatic success.

Israeli defence exports hit record as global arms spending soars

Israel’s defence exports reached a record last year as wars including those in Ukraine and Gaza raise the spectre of a global arms race.

Military exports rose by $500-million from 2022 to $13.1-billion, a doubling of the figure from five years ago, the country’s defence ministry said on Monday.

Missiles, rockets and air defence systems made up more than a third of the sales. Other significant items included radar and electronic warfare equipment. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for almost half the exports and Europe roughly one-third.

One of the biggest contracts signed in 2023 was for the supply of the Arrow 3 long-range air defence system to Germany. That deal is worth around $4-billion for state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries.

“While our industries are primarily focused on providing the defence establishment with the capabilities to support our troops and defend our citizens, they are also continuing to pursue areas of cooperation and exports to international partners,” Gallant said in a statement.

Some of the country’s other big defence companies, including Rafael, the maker of the Iron Dome and David’s Sling systems, were asked by the government to prioritise supplies to the Israel Defense Forces in the first weeks after war with Hamas broke out in October. While that conflict continues to rage, Israeli firms are once again focusing on international markets.

“If Rafael wants to be able to provide for Israel as well as stay ahead of the game in research and development, we need international markets, which are our only assurance for real growth,” Gideon Weiss, the company’s vice president for international business development, said to Bloomberg.

Israel pauses combat on road in Gaza to allow for more aid

The Israeli military said it had started a daily 11-hour “tactical pause” along a key route in southern Gaza to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The pause will run from 8am to 7pm along the road from the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah-al-Din Road and the outskirts of Khan Younis, according to a statement.

The army said the pause would be in effect until further notice and was being coordinated with the UN and international aid agencies.

Badly needed humanitarian aid in Gaza has again faced major delays after Israel launched in May what it said were limited operations in Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinians had fled during the war. Aid from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing has ground to a halt ever since as Israeli forces took control of the crossing from the Gaza side and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians headed north.

Another entry point for humanitarian aid has been via a temporary pier that the US military set up with other partners. The US said last week it would increase the pace of aid deliveries after repairs forced a brief shutdown.

Some aid deliveries fail to reach their target destination in Gaza as they’re sometimes intercepted by desperate crowds or seized by Hamas fighters.

Read more: How Israel’s Rafah operation threatens Gaza’s critical aid pipeline

The war began on 7 October after thousands of Hamas operatives crossed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and abducting 250 more. Israel’s counterattack has killed about 37,000 Gazans, according to Hamas officials, who don’t distinguish between civilians and fighters.

Bassem Naim, a Hamas official, said the group had not been “officially informed” about the unilateral pause by Israel and blamed it for the dire humanitarian situation.

The tactical pause also comes weeks after judges at a top United Nations court ordered Israel to immediately halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The order by the International Court of Justice has received backlash from Israel, which has repeatedly said that it seeks to destroy the last bastion of Hamas fighters in Rafah and ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat.

On Saturday night, more than 200,000 demonstrators around Israel called for a return of the hostages and early elections, one of the biggest turnouts since 7 October and a sign of growing impatience with the government’s conduct of the war.

The protests took place just after the military announced the deaths of eight soldiers in Rafah, a crew of combat engineers whose armoured vehicle drove over an explosive device. The single biggest toll in months, that pushed the number of fallen Israeli soldiers to more than 300.

Much of the anger at the demonstrations was aimed at the failure of the government to push through a law conscripting ultra-Orthodox men into the military at a time of growing need for soldiers. Later this week, the protest movement says it will return to a tactic it used before the war of holding rallies during the week outside the homes and offices of top officials. DM

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