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Israel’s War Against Hamas Ushers in New Era for Defense Technologies
Israeli soldiers inspect the entrance to what they say is a tunnel used by Hamas terrorists during a ground operation in a location given as Gaza, in this handout image released Nov. 9, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The “shock and horror” of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel and Israel’s ensuing war against the Palestinian terror group in Gaza is shaping how a defense technology renaissance will unfold, the head of a newly launched $50 million defense tech fund told The Algemeiner on Wednesday.
The Israel Defense Fund, headed by unmanned systems integrator Titan Innovations, is the second dedicated defense fund of its kind with the explicit goal of saving more Israeli lives on the battlefield with homegrown technologies.
According to Menahem Landau, the fund’s managing partner and the former head of UAV and drone technologies at Israel’s defense ministry, the operation in Gaza known as Iron Swords as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine are exposing significant gaps arising from connectivity and communications challenges in addition to AI-rooted threats.
“When dealing with urban warfare, when faced with challenges like dense civilian populations, urban obstacles, and unimaginable underground operations, and when Israel is constantly examined under a microscope by the world, battlefield victories are not enough — efficiency has become critical,” Landau told The Algemeiner.
According to venture capital (VC) monitor Pitchbook, more than $100 billion of VC has been invested in defense tech startups since 2021. Yet despite Israel’s obvious prowess in the defense space, and its reputation as the “Startup Nation,” the country’s technology and defense ecosystems do not have much overlap or interaction. Landau is hoping that will change in 2024 and that VC firms, as well as Israeli entrepreneurs, “will jump on the rising wave of defense tech.”
“Defense tech became a thing thanks mostly to Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific theater. Beyond that, we’re seeing over a trillion dollars in global defense budgets,” Landau said.
An estimated 3,000 terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7 by breaching its 40-mile long, $1 billion border fence at several dozen locations. In a statement, the Israel Defense Fund said it aims to identify technologies that can effectively address gaps in border security. The technologies can also be transferred to bridge existing gaps with US Homeland Security, Landau said.
“Seen through our lens, this means autonomous systems that accurately detect incoming threats in real-time, hidden from the enemy, with better survivability, and dynamic in its nature,” Landau said.
With 136 hostages still being held in Hamas’ vast subterranean tunnel network, estimated to stretch at least 380 miles, the fund also aims to prioritize technologies for conducting tunnel warfare, including specially-adapted search and rescue technologies.
Drones have played an enormous role in the war, even as early as Oct. 7 itself. In one instance that garnered headlines, the head of security at Or HaNer, a Gaza periphery kibbutz, was able to thwart a terrorist infiltration by deploying drones.
The drones “detected enemy movement and location prompting immediate mobilization of kibbutz security forces, averting a massacre in their kibbutz,” Oded Lipshitz, general partner at the Israel Defense Fund, told The Algemeiner.
Lipshitz went on to say that soldiers in Gaza also reported the huge benefits of drones for providing real-time threat detection and nullifying the use of “soldiers acting as human scouts.”
But Lipshitz stressed that the use of drones on the battlefield is limited “on account of connectivity challenges” and that Israeli drones, despite their abundance, still faced various obstacles in “working together in combat.”
Landau highlighted further obstacles faced by unmanned operations.
“On one hand, our guys are describing the moments of utilizing drone ops as ‘oxygen to their lungs’ and ‘our eyes in the sky,’ but these experiences are short-lived due to interruptions and neutralizations [of the drones] because of the environment, the enemy, and our own forces,” he said.
The fund hopes to mitigate the brief lifespan of drones by investing in AI-based sensors, software, and communication solutions needed for connectivity, GPS, threat detection, and unified command and platforms. Such technologies will also lead to preventing instances of friendly fire, Landau said.
The fund’s strength, he said, relies on the fact that it is “intimately familiar” with the ecosystem and the relevant technologies needed to allow for the development and deployment of fully integrated solutions.
More than half the CEOs from portfolio companies in Titan Innovation’s previous defense investment fund, which oversaw the development of game changing security systems like “Ronen” and “David,” were called up to war on Oct. 7 as reservists. “It has been enriching to get reports from the battlefield as to what works and where the challenges lie,” he said.
“We feel like it’s our moral imperative to show the world that Israel has the resilience and innovation to swiftly overcome all challenges and preserve our quantitative military edge and deterrence,” Landau said.
The post Israel’s War Against Hamas Ushers in New Era for Defense Technologies first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.