🇮🇱🇵🇸 What weapons could Israeli forces deploy during its Gaza ground offensive?

According to media reports, IDF's potential weaponry for the ground operation could include the following assets:

▪️ The ROOK Multi-Purpose Robotic unmanned ground vehicle (UGV)
▪️ The Eitan Armored Personnel Carrier
▪️ Battle tanks Merkava III Baz, Merkava IV, and the advanced Merkava V Barak, touted for its modern tech capabilities
▪️ Fire Weaver, a digitally connected battlefield tool employing AI for quick combat assessments
▪️ The Namer, an infantry vehicle modeled after the Merkava 4 tank

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🇵🇸⚔️🇮🇱 The military wing of Hamas says it is repelling Israeli ground incursions in the eastern part of Bureij Camp in the Gaza Strip.

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🇵🇸🇮🇱 Latest updates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

▪️Israel commits war crimes in Gaza Strip, UN human rights commission says

▪️IDF expands ground maneuvers in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said.

▪️Israel remains committed to its goal of returning all captives, the IDF spokesman stated.

▪️Israel is ready to defend the security of the country on all fronts — IDF spokesman.

▪️ Israel’s ground operation will have “grave and bloody consequences,” Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev warned

▪️Palestinian movement Hamas is ready to release all captured civilians, but Israeli strikes prevent this from happening, Abu Marzook, Politburo member of Palestine's Hamas movement, told Sputnik

▪️"If the Americans deploy air strike groups up into the Middle East and start bombing some countries and especially Iran, Iran will respond," Belarusian President Lukashenko says

▪️ Hamas discusses future of region different from one 'depicted by US' in Moscow

▪️The Druze community in Israel present themselves as Israeli citizens loyal to their duties and protecting their state, Israeli Druze politician and Knesset Member Akram Hasson told Sputnik.

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🇺🇸☢️ The Pentagon will upgrade the bomb, which is currently the main nuclear weapon of the US strategic forces; the number of nuclear weapons will not change.

The US will pursue a modern variant of the B61 nuclear gravity bomb, pending congressional authorization and appropriation, the Pentagon added.

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❗️ Explosions have been heard at a US base at the Omar oil field in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province, a local source told Sputnik

🇮🇱🇵🇸 IDF expands ground maneuvers in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Forces said

The main takeaways on the latest development include:

▪️Television reported artillery strikes and tank shelling near the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip.

▪️Internet and communications are disabled in the Gaza Strip.

▪️Israel is ready to defend the security of the country on all fronts, IDF speaker said.

▪️The military wing of Islamic Jihad announced the launch of rockets in the direction of Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod in southern Israel.

▪️Hamas' military wing said it was repelling an Israeli ground invasion in the eastern part of the Al-Bureij camp in the Gaza Strip.

▪️The United States is trying to convince Israel to abandon a full-scale ground operation in Gaza in favor of more “targeted” air strikes and use of special forces, US media reports.

▪️The US hopes for the release of all hostages taken by Hamas, but considers this option unlikely, the White House said. It was added the US would not evaluate the current actions of the Israeli army.

▪️A Hamas representative said the movement will release captured foreigners in exchange for a 5-day ceasefire, while Israeli soldiers will not be released - they will be held for exchange.

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❗️ An IDF spokesman said the expansion of operations is not the official start of a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, media reports

🇺🇳 The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone

❗️ Hamas's military wing said it was resisting a ground incursion by Israeli forces near Beit Hanoun in the northeastern Gaza Strip

🇷🇺 Russian Akhmat special forces, which train UAV pilots from various units directly in special op zone, interviewed by Sputnik

The pilots are taught not only how to operate the drones, but also all the necessary engineering issues.

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🇺🇸🇱🇧 US State Department recommends American citizens leave Lebanon immediately amid unpredictable security situation

❗️ Israel rejects the call for a ceasefire from the UN General Assembly and intends to destroy Hamas, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said

🇺🇸 The days of White House reporters engaging in actual journalism by asking the president tough, unexpected questions appear to be a thing of the past, with Joe Biden spotted with a cheat sheet featuring the names and photos of reporters to call upon.

The naughty notecard, spotted by eagle-eyed internet users who watched Biden’s Wednesday press conference at the White House alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, appears to show four names and photos Biden was meant to tap for questions.

Biden dutifully followed through, with all four names in the list, including White House correspondent Joey Garrison, PBS’s Laura Barron-Lopez, The Australian reporter Jeff Chambers and Australian Channel 10 politics editor Ashleigh Raper getting called upon to ask their questions, with the rest resigned to the role of glorified stenographers.

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Media reports suggest that the US Navy's ambitious initiative to build 12 intercontinental ballistic missile submarines might exceed its budget by a hefty 20 percent, equivalent to $20 billion. This financial overrun poses a potential setback for the project at the heart of the Navy's modernization program.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in its latest Navy shipbuilding report released on Thursday, cites "current industry conditions" as the rationale for the updated $120 billion program estimate.

According to the budget office's assessment, the USS District of Columbia, the lead submarine in the class, is expected to carry a price tag of $17.5 billion — $1.7 billion above the Navy's calculations. The Navy's upcoming fleet of the remaining 11 submarines is estimated at an average of $9.2 billion each, according to CBO figures. This represents a significant $1.5 billion surge in cost per vessel compared to initial projections.

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 US President Joe Biden met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is currently in Washington DC, and discussed the bilateral relations and the importance of maintaining open lines of communication, the White House said in a press release.

"The President emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication. He underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges," the press release stressed.

During the meeting, Biden expressed his condolences on the passing of former Premier Li Keqiang who died from a heart attack on Thursday, the release added.

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