How has Israel expanded its territory over time?

Israel has made its largest land seizure in the West Bank since the 1993 Oslo accords, according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog. Recently, the Israeli authorities approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (sq km). Since the beginning of 2024 a staggering 23.7 sq km have been declared Israel's "state lands" preventing private Palestinian ownership, the group said.

Sputnik has studied how the territory of Israel grew.

◾️ As of 2023, around 700,000 Jewish settlers live in 279 settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, up from 520,000 in 2012, according to the UN, with their number continuing to grow.

◾️ In 1993 the Oslo peace process was launched between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Under "two state" solution, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were to make up an independent Palestinian State. But despite withdrawing from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel continues to occupy East Jerusalem and to establish Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank.

On November 29 1947, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews — with Palestinian and Arab delegations rejecting the move.

◾️ Israel's founding was declared on May 14, 1948, followed by the First Arab-Israeli War. In the wake of the war, Israel expanded its initial territory to 77% of the former British Palestine mandate, while Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt took the Gaza Strip.

◾️ In the aftermath of the Six-Day War of June 5-10 1967, Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and took control of Jerusalem — capturing a total of 70,000 sq km.

◾️ The Camp David Accords of 1978 between Israel and Egypt led to Israel's withdrawal from Sinai. Jordan renounced its claims to the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 1988.

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Kamala Harris shimmying her way to the Oval Office

Biden’s catastrophic performance at the first debate with Donald Trump made democrats scratch their head in search of a new candidate to represent the party.

The vice president appears to be particularly cheery in light of the tangible prospect to run for president against Trump.

Are Harris’s groovy moves enough to secure the Dems’ support?

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US President Joe Biden is planning to sleep more, so he will not plan events later than 8 p.m., CNN reported, citing sources. The president allegedly told Democratic governors about it at a meeting at the White House.

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A Typhoon fighter jet operated by US-allied forces came dangerously close to an An-30 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces over the Syrian province of Homs.

The high professionalism of a Russian pilot prevented a collision, the deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria Major General Yury Popov said.

"On July 3, from 09:44 to 09:51 over the Et-Tanf area of Homs province, there was a dangerous rapprochement between a Typhoon fighter jet of the 'coalition' and an An-30 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which was making a routine flight in Syrian airspace. The Russian pilot, demonstrating high professionalism, took the necessary measures to prevent the collision in a timely fashion," the general said.

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Israel's Secret Intelligence Service (Mossad) director David Barnea is heading to Qatar to participate in talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Times of Israel newspaper reported, citing an Israeli official.

According to Times of Israel, Barnea is expected to hold a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday.

On Wednesday, Israel said that it has received a response from Palestinian movement Hamas on a ceasefire proposal in exchange for freeing hostages, and will provide its answer after evaluation.

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🇭🇺🇷🇺 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will travel to Moscow on Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, days after making a surprise visit to Kiev, media reported, citing Hungarian and EU officials.

Orban visited Kiev on Monday to talk to Volodymyr Zelensky. The prime minister said that peace in Ukraine would be Budapest's priority during its six-month rotating presidency of the European Union.

"I think it is his strategy to listen to both parties," a person familiar with the matter was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.

The Russian Embassy in Budapest told Sputnik that it "does not comment" on the matter.

Earlier in the day, Hungarian media reported that Prime Minister Orban and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto would visit Moscow on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not confirm or deny the reports, saying that Putin's Friday schedule would be busy.

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❗️ The Labour Party won Britain's parliamentary election Thursday with an estimated 410 out of 650 seats in the House of Commons, according to exit polls.

The Conservatives came in second with only about 131 seats, exit polls show.

The Liberal Democrats were third with 61 seats and Nigel Farage's Reform Party came in fourth with 13 seats. The separatist Scottish Nationalist Party won 10 seats.

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Ukraine lacks manpower, motivation, & hardware for any counteroffensive – military expert

Any counteroffensive attempt by Ukraine would be doomed to fail from the start, Alexei Leonkov, Russian military analyst and editor of Arsenal Otechestva (Arsenal of the Fatherland) magazine, told Sputnik.

Ukraine lacks all the components that it would need to mount such a campaign, he said.

From a military-technical aspect, it would need heavy armored vehicles, heavy artillery, enough air defense systems and air superiority to cover the advancing formations when they attack Russia’s multi-tiered defensive system.

In truth, the Kiev regime has no aviation to speak of, lacks sufficient air defense, and its heavy equipment and armored vehicles number in the dozens, and not hundreds.

"Drones will also fail to stop Russia’s shells and missiles from crushing the enemy’s advancing formations," said Leonkov.

As for Ukraine’s troops, their motivation has plummeted to near-zero, he said, adding that the level of training was about the same.

Nevertheless, Volodymyr Zelensky is being pushed to consider a counteroffensive by his Western puppet-masters, who funnel funds and weapons, said Leonkov.

The internal strife among the Kiev elites mirrors the discord tearing apart their main financial backer, the US, noted the analyst. But no matter what reshuffles might take place within the Ukrainian junta, it will not lead to the desired result, stressed Leonkov.

“The project called Ukraine, which must ‘defeat’ Russia, turned out to be a complete failure,” he added. “Any attempts to revive it lead to nothing but continuation of the agony of this regime.”

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No one eats like Americans 🍔🌭😤

New York held its traditional Independence Day hot dog eating contest Thursday. The eater of the year was Patrick Bertoletti, who managed to consume 58 sausage rolls in 10 minutes (the components of the dish are consumed separately; the bread is soaked in water and shoved into the mouth as a soggy white mass). The current record is held by American professional eater Joey Chestnut — nicknamed "Jaws" — who has eaten an astounding 76 hot dogs in ten minutes, but the reigning champ was MIA at this year's competition.

Miki Sudo won the women's competition, setting a new record of 51 hot dogs in 10 minutes and proving women can eat with the best of them.

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Biden confused listeners of a Philadelphia radio station, calling himself the “first president that got elected statewide in the state of Delaware, when I was a kid.”

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