Israel’s monthly military spending doubled by end of 2023: Report
Israel’s monthly military spending more than doubled to $4.7bn by the end of 2023, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The increase from an average of $1.8bn per month before October 2023 was “mainly driven by Israel’s large-scale offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel by Hamas in October 2023”, SIPRI said.
Israel’s increased military spending was part of a wider global trend, with SIPRI finding global military spending increased by 6.8 percent in 2023 to a total of $2443bn.
Israel’s closest ally, the United States, remained the single largest military spender in 2023, with $917bn in expenditure, a 37 percent share of all countries’ spending.
2.4 trillion wasted yearly on killing people and stopping people from killing people. Genocide is expensive.
Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah resumes attacks on US forces
More on the rocket attack on a US military base in Syria.
Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah has issued a statement saying Iraqi armed groups have decided to resume attacks on US forces in the country after seeing little progress on talks to achieve the exit of US troops during a visit by the Iraqi prime minister to Washington, DC.
“What happened a short while ago is the beginning,” the group said in an apparent reference to the attack late on Sunday.
Kataib Hezbollah is part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that began attacking US forces stationed in Iraq and Syria in October, saying they aimed to respond to Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and to resist US forces deployed in Iraq and the region.
The group suspended those attacks in February amid fears of an escalation after three US soldiers were killed in an attack on a base in Jordan.
Blinken readout of call with Gantz doesn’t mention sanctions
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has released another readout, this time on his call with the Israeli minister and war cabinet member, Benny Gantz.
But according to the Times of Israel, Blinken’s summaries of his calls with Gantz and Gallant “regurgitate old talking points” while failing to mention the “actual reason for the calls”, which is the reports the US is planning to impose sanctions on Israel’s Netzah Yehuda infantry battalion.
The US State Department is yet to officially comment but is reportedly considering the sanctions after a recent investigation from news site ProPublica found Blinken had been sitting on recommendations that the US stop providing aid to multiple Israeli military and police units over alleged human rights abuses.
Palestinians sceptical of US plan to sanction Israeli military
