Agencies-Gaza post
Israel holds military exercises amid tensions with Iran
Dozens of Israeli fighters committed exercises on the Mediterranean and warships held exercises on the Red Sea this week, the military said Thursday as it organized several “scenarios” against Iran.
The two bitter enemies have been locked in a shadow war that comes amid tensions over stalled efforts to revive a deal meant to ensure that Iran is unable to develop a nuclear weapon.
Israel is firmly against the 2015 nuclear deal and has promised to do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
“We are continually preparing and training for many scenarios, including threats from Iran,” said an Israeli military statement on the exercises, some of which were conducted together with Cyprus.
“Dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted air drills over the Mediterranean Sea to practice long-range flight and hit distant targets,” the statement released Wednesday read.
He said the plane had “simulated long-range flight, aerial refueling and hitting distant targets” during military exercises held on Tuesday.
The exercises were conducted during the “Chariots of Fire” exercise that was supposed to take place in May 2021 based on the scenario of a conflict with the Palestinians but was postponed by an 11-day war with Hamas, the Islamist ruler of Gaza.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said personnel from the “missile and submarine flotillas” had completed “a complex and lengthy training exercise in the Red Sea.”
“This extended training exercise simulated various scenarios, including achieving maritime superiority and maintaining freedom of maneuver in the area,” said Navy Commander David Saar Salama.
The Iranian nuclear deal has been on hold since 2018 when the United States under then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it and imposed sanctions on the Islamic republic.
Iran, which denies seeking a nuclear weapon, has reacted since 2019 by canceling its nuclear commitments.
Talks to revive the deal stalled, and on Wednesday Iran warned of a response to any “non-constructive action” taken by the UN atomic control body after the agency reported traces of nuclear material at sites. not declared in the Islamic Republic.
Last week, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency said it estimated that Iran’s enriched uranium stocks have increased more than 18 times the limit set in the agreement.
Cyprus claimed to have taken part in part of the Israeli exercises, noting that they were not aimed at third parties.
His defense ministry said the exercises indicated “the excellent relations between the Republic of Cyprus and Israel in matters of defense and security”.
The Cypriot foreign ministry said they were “based on fictitious scenarios” and “not targeted against any other country in the region”.
“This is the culmination of one of the largest and most extensive exercises we have held in recent years,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Tuesday after a one-day visit to Cyprus.
The so-called “shadow war” between Israel and Iran saw a wave of attacks on ships from both sides that blamed each other.
On Friday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hijacked two Greek-flagged oil tankers in Gulf waters, in a move condemned by Athens as “tantamount to acts of piracy.”
At the time, nine Greeks and one Cypriot were on board. Iran claimed to be in “good health” and not to have been arrested.
The hijacking of the ship came just days after Athens said it would deliver Iranian oil taken from a Russian ship hijacked in the United States.
