Lockheed Martin announced on January 29 that it will quadruple production of its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile interceptors under a new Pentagon framework agreement. Annual interceptor output will rise from about 96 to 400 per year. “Today’s agreement to quadruple THAAD production means we will have more interceptors available than ever before to deter our adversaries,” said Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet. The announcement comes as part of a flurry of recent munitions-production initiatives: it follows a deal to more than triple production of Patriot PAC-3...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Jerusalem press conference on Tuesday, January 27, that Israeli soldiers died in Gaza because the United States imposed an “arms embargo” during Joe Biden’s presidency that left the Israel Defense Forces short of ammunition. Netanyahu said the alleged embargo ended when President Donald Trump took office, and he provided no number of deaths and no dates for when the shortage occurred. Former Biden officials Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk rejected the claim, with McGurk calling it “categorically false.” Netanyahu raised the accusation at...

Three Palestinian journalists – including longtime CBS News freelance cameraman Abed Shaat – were killed on Wednesday, January 21, when an Israeli airstrike hit their vehicle in the Al-Zahra area southwest of Gaza City, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency. The Israel Defense Forces said troops struck “suspects” operating a drone “affiliated with Hamas,” while the Egyptian Relief Committee said the targeted vehicle was on a marked humanitarian mission. CBS mourned Shaat, but its published story did not denounce Israel for the strike. Civil defense officials identified the other two...

Jared Kushner arrived at the World Economic Forum in Davos with a redevelopment pitch for Gaza: sleek high-rises, new roads, a rebuilt airport, and a modern port on the Mediterranean, under the umbrella of President Donald Trump’s newly chartered “Board of Peace.” In a 10-minute address on January 22, Kushner said that, with “security,” cities in the region can be rebuilt “in three years,” and that Gaza could follow that model. The plan’s premise is simple: stabilize Gaza, then let capital and construction do the rest. The obstacle list is longer, and it is written into the ground itself....

Senior White House advisor Jared Kushner on Thursday pitched an ambitious plan to transform war-ravaged Gaza into a Mediterranean resort hub, telling global business and political elites at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos that reconstruction could be completed within three years if Hamas fully disarms under the next phase of President Donald Trump’s peace plan. Speaking at a signing ceremony for Trump’s newly announced “Board of Peace,” Kushner said Gaza’s rebuilding would depend entirely on demilitarization. “Without that, we can’t rebuild,” he said, adding that Hamas’s...

A fractious global debate over the newly proposed Gaza “Board of Peace” has intensified as countries publicly declare whether they will participate in a U.S.-led body that its proponents say could oversee Gaza’s post-war reconstruction and, potentially, broader conflict resolution. European powers have split sharply over involvement, Middle Eastern governments are lining up to join, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reversed an earlier refusal to participate, agreeing to take Israel’s seat. French, Scandinavian, and other Western European governments have been among the most vocal in...

President Donald Trump has threatened to hit French wine and champagne with a 200 percent tariff after France signaled it would not join his proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza. “I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes, and he’ll join, but he doesn’t have to join,” he told reporters. France’s agriculture minister Annie Genevard called the threat “blackmail” and said it was shocking because it sought to force compliance. A senior French official said Paris does not intend to join the board because its charter extends beyond Gaza and could undermine the United Nations....