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Amid Tensions, Israel Set to Manufacture Helmets Domestically in Move Away From US Dependence
US President Joe Biden, left, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: Miriam Alster/Pool via REUTERS
Israel’s military and Defense Ministry are set to open solicitations for Israeli-made military helmets and uniforms in a move towards manufacturing independence, Israeli media reported on Thursday.
The decision comes as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seeks to limit its dependence on the United States for vital military equipment.
The Defense Ministry’s Procurement Department is in the process of drafting a request for information (RFI) for Israeli-based manufacturers to describe their ability to develop helmet and uniform manufacturing facilities. In general government contracts, the RFI stage is then followed by a request for proposals (RFP), whereby prospective vendors would submit their bid to build the factory and manufacture the helmets and uniforms.
IDF helmets and uniforms are largely imported from US manufacturers, which has caused problems for the military during the ongoing war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
The outbreak of the war led to the call up of more than 360,000 reservists, causing a massive shortage of helmets. IDF guidelines prescribe specific helmets for different units, such as stronger ballistic protection, flashlights, cameras, and other specifications.
According to the Procurement Department, the sudden need for such large quantities of helmets led to a delay in delivery, the need to source from multiple parties, and an increase in price. This was the case for other essential gear, including weapons systems and ammunition that comes from the United States.
The push for domestic production comes amid rising tensions between the US and Israel over the war in Gaza. Washington has increasingly pressured Jerusalem, which launched the Israeli military offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, to agree to a ceasefire with the terror group, scale back its operations, and allow more humanitarian aid despite concerns that Hamas leadership will steal it from civilians.
US President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel’s right to defend itself following the Oct. 7 atrocities, has adopted an apparent shift in his approach to the Gaza war in recent weeks. Amid growing pressure from Democrats in Congress to be tougher on Israel, the Biden administration has come out in support of a ceasefire in Gaza after previously opposing one. Israel has argued that a ceasefire without the release of its hostages in Gaza would allow Hamas to strengthen its position.
The White House also reportedly asked the State Department and the Pentagon for a list of all weapons the US is planning to send the Jewish state over the next few weeks. Other reports indicate Biden may consider conditioning aid to Israel if the Jewish state launches a military operation in Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza and where most of the Palestinian enclave’s civilians are located.
Meanwhile, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called for new elections in Israel, lambasting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace. The comments came after a group of eight liberal and progressive US senators demanded Biden stop military assistance to Israel. Schumer did not sign the letter.
A separate letter from Democratic members of the US House of Representatives argued an Israeli invasion of Rafah “should not be supported by US taxpayer-funded assistance” if it “runs counter to the specific principles outlined” by the Biden administration on necessary conditions to give aid — a situation they considered “likely.”
The IDF has been in urgent need of resupplies of ammunition. According to reports from December, more than 240 US transport planes and 20 military ships have brought over 10,000 tons of ammunition since the onset of the war, including those needed for tanks, missile defense, artillery shells, bombs for the air force, and handheld weapons for civilians.
Israel has made strides since the war to prop up its local defense manufacturing capabilities. Netanyahu said in January at a press conference that the country “is preparing the defense industries to disconnect from dependency on the rest of the world,” including investment into a “multi-year plan to free Israel from dependence on external purchases. We’ll need to equip locally, with a local manufacturing capability.”
Defense Ministry Director-General Eyal Samir added, “One of the lessons we’ve learned during the war is our need to boost our independence and industry. This is Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s policy, and we are working on it.”
The post Amid Tensions, Israel Set to Manufacture Helmets Domestically in Move Away From US Dependence first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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