Israel Holds Air Force Drill with UAE Visit

Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
TT
20

Israel Holds Air Force Drill with UAE Visit

Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Israeli air force pilots walk to their F-16 fighters during the "Blue Flag" multinational air defense exercise at the Ovda air force base, north of the Israeli city of Eilat, on October 24, 2021. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Chief of Israeli Air Force operations Amir Lazar has said that Israel’s largest-ever air force exercise, which kicked off Tuesday “doesn’t focus on Iran.”

Lazar said Tehran remains Israel’s top strategic threat and at the center of much of its military planning. However, he said the drills are part of the Blue Flag exercises, which his country hosts every two years since 2013 in the Negev desert.

The fifth in its series, this year’s exercise is taking part with the participation of air forces from France, the United States and Germany, as well as Britain, and in the presence of the chief of the UAE air force, General Ibrahim Nasser Mohamed Al Alawi.

Israel normalized ties last year with several Arab countries, including the UAE.

Al Alawi arrived in Israel on Monday and met with head of the Israeli military aviation, General Amikam Norkin.

Lazar told reporters at the southern Ovda airbase that with more than 70 fighter jets — including Mirage 2000s, Rafales and F-16s — and some 1,500 personnel participating, the drills are the largest-ever held in Israel.

While UAE aircraft are not flying in the drills, Lazar said the visit from the country's air force chief was "very significant."

Commenting on the visit of the UAE official, Norkin said: “This is a truly historic day with tremendous significance for the future of cooperation between our air forces.”

Although Lazar said the exercises do not focus on Iran, security sources told the press that through the drills “Israel has sought to sound the alarm over a fleet of drones it claims Tehran is dispatching to its proxies across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said in a statement that it launched on Tuesday a military exercise near the Gaza Strip to improve the mobilization of troops.



Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Aid to Gaza 'Facing Total Collapse', Warn 12 NGOs

 A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks through a hole in the wall into a damaged room after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2025. (AFP)

The humanitarian aid system in Gaza is "facing total collapse" because of Israel's blockade on aid supplies since March 2, the heads of 12 major aid organizations warned Thursday, urging Israel to let them "do our jobs".

Israel has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held there.

"Every single person in Gaza is relying on humanitarian aid to survive," the chief executives of 12 NGOs, including Oxfam and Save the Children, wrote in a joint statement.

"That lifeline has been completely cut off since a blockade on all aid supplies was imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2," they said, adding that "This is one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation."

A survey of 43 international and Palestinian aid organizations working in Gaza found that almost all have suspended or drastically cut services since a ceasefire ended on March 18, "with widespread and indiscriminate bombing making it extremely dangerous to move around", the NGOs said.

"Famine is not just a risk, but likely rapidly unfolding in almost all parts of Gaza," they said. "Survival itself is now slipping out of reach and the humanitarian system is at breaking point."

"We call on all parties to guarantee the safety of our staff and to allow the safe, unfettered access of aid into and across Gaza through all entry points, and for world leaders to oppose further restrictions."

Israel's renewed assault has killed at least 1,691 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, bringing the overall toll since the war erupted to 51,065, most of them civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.