Satellite Image Analyzed by AP Shows Damage after Iranian Attack on Israeli Desert Air Base

This satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC shows Israel's Nevatim air base on Friday, April 19, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC shows Israel's Nevatim air base on Friday, April 19, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
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Satellite Image Analyzed by AP Shows Damage after Iranian Attack on Israeli Desert Air Base

This satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC shows Israel's Nevatim air base on Friday, April 19, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC shows Israel's Nevatim air base on Friday, April 19, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

An Iranian attack on an Israeli desert air base last week as part of Tehran's unprecedented assault on the country damaged a taxiway, a satellite image analyzed by The Associated Press on Saturday shows.

The overall damage done to Nevatim air base in southern Israel was minor despite Iran launching hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Israeli air defenses and fighter jets, backed by the US, the United Kingdom and neighboring Jordan, shot down the vast majority of the incoming fire.

But the Iranian attack last weekend showed Tehran's willingness to use its vast arsenal of ballistic missiles directly against Israel as tensions remain high across the wider Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. An apparent Israeli retaliatory attack Friday on Isfahan, Iran, and Tehran's low-key response to it suggest both countries want to dial back their long-running shadow war for now — though risks of a wider conflagration in the region remain.

The Planet Labs PBC image, taken Friday for the AP, shows fresh blacktop across a taxiway near hangars at the southern part of Nevatim air base, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Jerusalem. The daily newspaper Haaretz, which published lower-resolution images of the site Thursday, identified the hangars nearby as housing C-130 cargo aircraft flown by transport squadrons.

The satellite image corresponds to footage earlier released by the Israeli military, which showed construction equipment working on the damaged taxiway. A hangar in the background of the video mirrors those seen nearby.

Other images released by the Israeli military showed a crater in the sand and damage under what appeared to be a wall that it said came from the Iranian attack. The little visible damage seen at the air base in the satellite image directly contradicts Iran's efforts to portray the attack as a great victory to a public alienated by Tehran’s cratering economy and its heavy-handed crackdowns on dissent in recent years.

“This operation became a sign of the power of the Islamic Republic and its armed forces," Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Friday. “It also showed the steely determination of our nation and our wise leader, the commander of all forces.”

However, it does show Iran's arsenal has the ability to reach Israel, as the April 13 attack marked the first direct military assault on the country by a foreign nation since Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.



UN Rejects US Resolution Urging an End to the War in Ukraine without Noting Russian Aggression

Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)
Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Rejects US Resolution Urging an End to the War in Ukraine without Noting Russian Aggression

Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)
Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)

In a win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, the United States on Monday failed to get the UN General Assembly to approve its resolution urging an end to the war without mentioning Moscow's aggression. And the assembly approved a dueling European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine.

It marks a setback for the Trump administration in the 193-member world body, whose resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion. But it also shows some diminished support for Ukraine, whose resolution passed 93-18, with 65 abstentions. That’s lower than previous votes, which saw over 140 nations condemn Russia’s aggression.

The United States had tried to pressure the Ukrainians to withdraw their resolution in favor of its proposal, according to a US official and a European diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. They refused, and then the assembly added language to the US proposal making clear that Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in violation of the UN Charter.

The vote on the amended US resolution was 93-8 with 73 abstentions, with Ukraine voting “yes,” the US abstaining and Russia voting “no.”

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa said her country is exercising its “inherent right to self-defense” following Russia’s invasion, which violates the UN Charter’s requirement that countries respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations.

“As we mark three years of this devastation — Russia’s full invasion against Ukraine — we call on all nations to stand firm and to take ... the side of the Charter, the side of humanity and the side of just and lasting peace, peace through strength,” she said.

US deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea, meanwhile, said multiple previous UN resolutions condemning Russia and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops “have failed to stop the war,” which “has now dragged on for far too long and at far too terrible a cost to the people in Ukraine and Russia and beyond.”

“What we need is a resolution marking the commitment from all UN member states to bring a durable end to the war,” Shea said.

The dueling proposals reflect the tensions that have emerged between the US and Ukraine after President Donald Trump suddenly opened negotiations with Russia in a bid to quickly resolve the conflict. It also underscores the strain in the transatlantic alliance with Europe over the Trump administration’s extraordinary turnaround on engagement with Moscow. European leaders were dismayed that they and Ukraine were left out of preliminary talks last week.

In escalating rhetoric, Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator," falsely accused Kyiv of starting the war and warned that he “better move fast” to negotiate an end to the conflict or risk not having a nation to lead. Zelenskyy responded by saying Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space.”

Since then, the Trump administration not only declined to endorse Ukraine's UN resolution, but at the last minute proposed its own competing resolution and pressed its allies to support that version instead. It comes as Trump plans to host French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Washington.

The US also wanted a vote on its proposal in the more powerful UN Security Council. China, which holds the council presidency this month, has scheduled it for Monday afternoon.

The General Assembly has become the most important UN body on Ukraine because the 15-member Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, has been paralyzed by Russia’s veto power.

There are no vetoes in the assembly, and the Ukraine resolution, which is co-sponsored by all 27 members of the European Union, is almost certain to be adopted. Its votes are closely watched as a barometer of world opinion, but the resolutions passed there are not legally binding, unlike those adopted by the Security Council.

Since Russia forces stormed across the border on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Assembly has approved half a dozen resolutions that have condemned Moscow’s invasion and demanded the immediate pullout of Russian troops.

The votes on the rival resolutions — which have sparked intense lobbying and arm-twisting, one European diplomat said — will be closely watched to see if that support has waned and to assess the backing for Trump’s effort to negotiate an end to the fighting.

The very brief US draft resolution acknowledges “the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict” and “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.” It never mentions Moscow’s invasion.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told reporters last week that the US resolution was “a good move.”

The Ukraine's resolution, meanwhile, refers to “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation” and recalls the need to implement all previous assembly resolutions “adopted in response to the aggression against Ukraine.”

It singles out the assembly’s demand that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

It stresses that any involvement of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia’s forces “raises serious concerns regarding further escalation of this conflict.”

The resolution reaffirms the assembly’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and also "that no territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal.”

It calls for “a de-escalation, an early cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine” and it reiterates “the urgent need to end the war this year.”