The IDF has admitted to bombing a hospital in order to assassinate a prominent Palestinian journalist in Gaza, explicitly stating that they assassinated him for engaging in journalistic activities.
The official Israel Defense Forces account made the following post on Twitter (emphasis added):
Don’t let Aslih’s press vest fool you: Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih, a terrorist from the Hamas Khan Yunis brigade, was eliminated along with other terrorists in the ‘Nasser’ hospital in Khan Yunis. Aslih participated in the brutal October 7 massacre under the guise of a journalist and owner of a news network. During the massacre, he documented acts of murder, looting, and arson, posting the footage online. Journalist? More like terrorist.”
Documenting newsworthy acts and posting the footage online is also known as journalism. It’s the thing that journalism is.
The 80 or so F-16s Europe are planing to send are:
not domestically produced or supported, they are built in the United States and rely on support (spare parts and maintenance) from the United States itself, hence the recent US $300 million F-16 support package and flights of spare parts and stripped out airframes from the boneyard in the US. They also rely on US weapons/munitions, targeting equipment and intelligence, electronic systems/countermeasures and technicians. Europe cannot provide this support, only the United States can. Europe sending F-16s without US support would amount to sending a bunch of soft locked aircraft that wouldn’t be able to carry out the required missions. I wrote a long post about this when the USA paused intelligence sharing to Ukraine. It’s US technology, not European technology. The US is required as a key player.
The F-16s Europe are sending are cold war era F-16AM block 15 models, roughly equivalent in capability to the Soviet era MiG-29s Ukraine has/had. These are not the latest F-16V block 70 aircraft, or even the 2000s era F-16C block 50 aircraft. These are the oldest F-16s in service. They lack a lot of capabilities that the newest F-16s have, from radars to targeting systems.
It is only possible for Europe to send these F-16s because the United States is prepared to supply F-35s as a replacement for those countries giving up their F-16s. Europe has no domestic equivalent to the F-35, and their latest 4.5 generation aircraft (Gripen, Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon) while cheaper to operate than an F-35, cost more upfront and lack stealth capabilities. In theory this is a win-win situation: European countries trade in their cold war era F-16AMs to Ukraine for the latest and greatest F-35s, and the US makes a ton of money on arms sales. But again, this plan requires the US as a key player to work. It’s not possible without US involvement. Europe cannot supply the replacements that the US can.
As for domestically produced fighter aircraft, France was able to promise a dozen or two Mirage 2000s, but that was it. No one else from Europe has stepped up. This seems to be all that Europe can give independently. Macron said as much.
The storm shadow/SCALP-EG missiles are fired by Soviet era Su-24 aircraft in the Ukrainian inventory using parts from the UK’s Tornado GR4 aircraft. It’s a frankenstein solution.
This is not to say that Europe doesn’t have high tech weapons in general, they do. But the stuff that they do have they need to keep for themselves for their own domestic security, they cannot support another conflict and keep themselves at the appropriate readiness levels. There are also key shortfalls in certain areas (like air defence) where Europe does not have the domestic production capability, and relies on partners like the US and Israel for them. Hence Germany buying an Israeli Arrow 3 air defence battery (midcourse ballistic missile interception) recently.
Yes but quantity is key here. So far Ukraine has barely received any of its promised F16’s. There are more modern F16’s in Europe. But Ukraine is barely getting any of their promised planes to begin with. Europe is offloading their old trash that much is true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-16_training_coalition
Europe has newer stuff. Even F35’s. Also Eurofighters and Gripens. There is a way, but there is no will from Europe either to help Ukraine win.
My point is that these F-16s are not European technology or Europe’s to send. They are European in name only. The only way to send these aircraft to Ukraine, provide long term support , and provide replacemens to the countries who have sent them to Ukraine, is with extensive United States involvement. The F-35s are also US jets, and the US has no intention to send them over to Ukraine. Europe does not have much of a say here, they are beholden to whatever decision the United States makes.
As for Gripens, Rafales, Eurofighters, the domestic European fighters Europe could give to Ukraine without US involvement, Europe can’t send these to Ukraine without reducing the readiness levels of their domestic air forces to unsatisfactory levels. Europe cannot maintain their own domestic defence and support another high intensity conflict in Ukraine simultaneously. Macron said as much. This is why only a dozen or two Mirage 2000s have been promised so far.
Outside of the Ukrainian context, most European nations want F-35s instead of domestic European fighters as replacements for their ageing 4th generation fleets, because F-35s have stealth capabilities and there is no domestic European fighter with stealth capabilities.