Israel’s Army Kicks Off Drills on Borders with Lebanon, Gaza

 Part of the Israeli army’s military drills conducted in the northern region. (AFP)
Part of the Israeli army’s military drills conducted in the northern region. (AFP)
TT
20

Israel’s Army Kicks Off Drills on Borders with Lebanon, Gaza

 Part of the Israeli army’s military drills conducted in the northern region. (AFP)
Part of the Israeli army’s military drills conducted in the northern region. (AFP)

The Israeli army launched military drills on Saturday on the borders with Gaza Strip and the northern borders with Lebanon.

According to the army spokesman, dubbed “Hot Winter 2,” the drills on Gaza borders were carried out by the Gaza Division, during which explosions were heard and the army forces and military vehicles were observed.

He affirmed that the drills were planned in advance and aimed at “raising the efficiency and readiness of the army forces and sending a message to the armed Palestinian organizations that Israel is prepared to launch strikes in case of any missile escalation.”

However, the drills on the northern borders with Lebanon were carried out without any prior preparations and will continue until Tuesday.

They are aimed at “strengthening the readiness of fighting units and the army’s logistics for sudden events and various scenarios in the northern arena,” the army noted.

The department of technology, information and intelligence took part in the drills.

Some 8,000 conscripts and 5,000 reservist troops are participating in the drill, the army said, adding that the reservist troops were called up specifically for the drill.

Earlier this month, the Israeli Air Force conducted a series of joint aerial exercises with the US and French military simulating strikes against Iran’s nuclear reactors.

According to the army classifications, the upcoming war “could be partial on one front or could take place on several fronts simultaneously.”

It also divides threats three circles, the first includes border countries and regions such as Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip, while the second includes more distant countries, including Yemen and Iraq, the third includes Iran.

Observers linked the sudden drills on Lebanon's borders and the threats announced by Israeli leaders in the weekend to bombing Beirut airport if it were to be used for smuggling Iranian weapons, as it did with Syria.

Sources in Tel Aviv said Israel is determined to prevent Iran from transferring arms shipments at any cost to Syria or Lebanon.

They pointed out the the visit made by Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Hassan Nasarallah to Damascus and his meeting with President Bashar al-Assad in late November tackled the challenges facing Iran and its Lebanese proxy in Syria due to Israel’s strikes and alternative ways to transfer weapons.



Trump Administration Ends Some USAID Contracts Providing Lifesaving Aid across the Middle East

A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)
A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Trump Administration Ends Some USAID Contracts Providing Lifesaving Aid across the Middle East

A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)
A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)

The Trump administration has notified the World Food Program and other partners that it has terminated some of the last remaining lifesaving humanitarian programs across the Middle East, a US official and a UN official told The Associated Press on Monday.

The projects were being canceled “for the convenience of the US Government” at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency whom the Trump administration appointed to oversee and finish dismantling the US Agency for International Development, according to letters sent to USAID partners and viewed by the AP.

About 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week, including for major projects with the World Food Program, the world’s largest provider of food aid, a USAID official said. An official with the United Nations in the Middle East said the World Food Program received termination letters for US-funded programs in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Some of the last remaining US funding for key programs in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe also was affected, including for those providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war, the USAID official said.

The UN official said the groups that would be hit hardest include Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. Also affected are programs supporting vulnerable Lebanese people and providing irrigation systems inside Syria, a country emerging from a brutal civil war and struggling with poverty and hunger.

In Yemen, another war-divided country that is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, the terminated aid apparently includes food that has already arrived in distribution centers, the UN official said.

Aid officials were just learning of many of the cuts Monday and said they were struggling to understand their scope.

Another of the notices, sent Friday, abruptly pulled US funding for a program with strong support in Congress that had sent young Afghan women overseas for schooling amid Taliban prohibitions on women’s education, said an administrator for that project, which is run by Texas A&M University.

The young women would now face return to Afghanistan, where their lives would be in danger, according to that administrator, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration had pledged to spare those most urgent, lifesaving programs in its cutting of aid and development programs through the State Department and USAID.

The Republican administration already has canceled thousands of USAID contracts as it dismantles USAID, which it accuses of wastefulness and of advancing liberal causes.

The newly terminated contracts were among about 900 surviving programs that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had notified Congress he intended to preserve, the USAID official said.

There was no immediate comment from the State Department.