Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

i24 News – Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia launched 537 drones and missiles against targets throughout Ukraine overnight between Saturday and Sunday, in what what described as the largest attack of the war.

Poland activated aerial defenses and scrambled jets as the six-hour onslaught continued. One Ukrainian F-16 pilot was killed as Kyiv attempted to intercept the missiles and drones, with 475 shot down.

“Tragically, while repelling the attack, our F-16 pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, died. Today, he destroyed seven aerial targets,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude,” the air force said, as quoted in Politico. “He died like a hero!”

The cities of Cherkasy, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv were targeted.

The Russia attack came after Ukraine attacked the Kirovske airfield in the Crimean Peninsula, targeting air defenses, drones, and even destroying several helicopters and an air defense system.

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Illustrative. Israeli forces keep guard at the scene of what the Israeli military said is a ramming attack near Hebron, in the West Bank, August 30, 2023. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

i24 News – The Shin Bet security agency said on Sunday that it had thwarted one of the biggest Hamas networks in years, arresting more than 60 operatives and seizing 22 weapons of various types.

After the raid in the Hebron area of the southern West Bank, the Shin Bet said that the operatives planned to perpetrate terrorist attacks “in the immediate future.” In addition, the operation solved a shooting attack that occurred at the Bani Naim junction 15 years ago, during which four Israelis – Yitzhak and Tali Ames, Kochava Even Haim, and Avishai Schindler – were murdered.

Some of the weapons seized were confirmed to have been used in the Jerusalem checkpoint attack in November, 2023, during which Corporal Avraham Patna was slain.

The operation lasted three months and was conducted jointly between the Shin Bet, Israel Police, and the Israel Defense Forces. A Shin Bet official called it “the largest and most extensive investigation case” in a decade.

Most of the senior Hamas officials arrested had been previously imprisoned, the Shin Bet said, and had “worked to recruit, arm, and train additional Hamas operatives, residents of the area, in order to carry out shooting attacks and IEDs against Israeli targets.”

As part of the training, the recruits trained to use weapons, including at shooting ranges, collected intelligence, and produced and assembled bombs. They were organized into approximated 10 terrorist cells.

The large-scale raid yielded 22 weapons seized, along with the arrest, as well as 11 grenades and large stockpiles of ammunition. The operation also discovered an underground hideout where the weapons and munitions were stored, which was also used to hide wanted terror suspects.

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-US President Donald Trump, and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed display their copies of signed agreements as they participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and some of its Middle East neighbors, in a strategic realignment of Middle Eastern countries against Iran, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, US, September 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner/

i24 News – US President Donald Trump said “some really great countries” wish to join the Abraham Accords, speaking on Sunday to Fox News.

Trump said Iran was “weeks” away from its nuclear threshhold before Israel launched a surprise operation that lasted 12 days.

The US joined the operation last month, bombing the Fordow underground uranium enrichment facility with never-before-used GBU-57 series MOPs (Massive Ordnance Penetrators), as well as other nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz with Tomahawk missiles.

Shortly after, Trump pushed for a ceasefire. Dozens of Israeli civilians were killed in the flare-up, while hundreds of Revolutionary Guards members and senior officials in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs were killed.

The US and Iran have restarted negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program, with Trump reiterating that uranium enrichment is a red line. “Enrichment doesn’t mean like air conditioning and it doesn’t mean to jack up your car. Enrichment is a bad word,” he said.

“I won’t let that happen,” he concluded.

Regarding the success of the strikes against Iranian facilities, he stressed that the enriched uranium stores were buried underground and that the nuclear sites were “destroyed.” Trump also lambasted early reports that suggested only superficial damage had been inflicted, saying that the source that leaked the preliminary assessment should be “prosecuted.”

The B-2 bombers who conducted the mission, Trump said, would be invited to meet him at the White House.

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