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Israel's first F-35A Lightning II fighter jet is revealed during a ceremony.  (Lockheed Martin) « less Israel received three F-35s from the US on Tuesday, bringing its total inventory of the revolutionary fighter up to five, but according to a French journalist citing French intelligence reports, Israeli F-35s have already carried out combat missions in Syria. In Air Forces Monthly,  Thomas Newdick  summarized  a report  from Georges Malbrunot at the French newspaper Le Figaro that said Israel took its F-35s out on a combat mission one month after getting them from the US. Malbrunot reported that on January 12, Israeli F-35s took out a Russian-made S-300 air defense system around Syrian President Bashar Assad's palace in Damascus and a Russian-made Pantsir-S1 mobile surface-to-air missile system set for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel has  repeatedly and firmly asserted  that its goal to make sure weapons cannot reach Hezbollah...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the administration of US President Donald Trump to recognize Syria’s Golan Heights as part of the Israeli territory. Israel occupied the Golan Heights and then annexed it in 1981 in a move that has never been recognized by the international community. Neither has the US recognized the annexation of the mountainous area. Netanyahu made the request during his Wednesday meeting with Trump in Washington but the new US president's "reaction was not earth shattering," according to the Israeli premier who talked to reporters.  The Israeli regime has built scores of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights and has used the region to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government and aid militants in the Arab country. US President Donald Trump (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after a joint press conference at the White House on February 15, 2017 (Photo by AFP). Last...

In this file photo, an explosion is seen following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip. At least two Palestinians have lost their lives when the Israeli military carried out an airstrike against an area on the border between Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula and the besieged Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said the attack targeted a tunnel which Gazans use to bring basic needs into the coastal enclave in the border town of Rafah early on Thursday, leaving two Palestinians dead and five others injured. The sources identified the deceased as 24-year-old Hessam Hamid al-Soufi and 38-year-old Mohammad Anwar al-Aqra’, both residents of Gaza City. Two of the injured are in critical condition. The victims have reportedly been taken to the Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah to receive treatment, Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported. The airstrike came shortly after the Israeli military claimed that it had inter...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on board an aircraft Israel’s hawkish prime minister has started out a string of significant overseas visits with the clearly-stated aim of magnetizing enmity towards Iran.  “We are at the start of a significant diplomatic period” for Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday before going on the tour,  The Guardian   reported. The visits will take him to the UK, the US and Australia. “In the diplomatic sphere, I intend to emphasize the need for a common front against Iran’s defiant aggression, which has raised its head in recent days. This must be done on an ongoing basis, but especially in light of Iran’s defiance against the international order,” he added. The premier has never ceased to stigmatize Iran throughout his career atop the Israeli political hierarchy, but he has been more signally leading the hostile policy since 2015, when the Islamic Republic and world powers, including the UK and the US, clinched a landmark ...