The Pentagon announced that it’s awarded Boeing with a nearly $8.6 billion contract to provide Israel with F-15 fighter jets this week, as Israel lists several dozen humanitarian groups that it’s banning from Gaza as part of its ongoing genocide, including Doctors Without Borders.
The contract involves the design, manufacturing, and delivery of 25 new F-15IA jets, with the option for 25 more. The work will be carried out at Boeing’s plant in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be finished by the end of 2035, the Department of Defense said in a statement.
Israel had signed a $5.2 billion deal to buy F-15s in late 2024, with the cost potentially having been increased due to the option for more jets, Defense News writes. The contract is part of the U.S.’s F-15 Israel Program.
Israel has used F-15s heavily in its military aggression in the Middle East, including in its ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as its attacks on Iran and other countries.
The contract was announced just after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
The two leaders heaped praise on each other at a press conference after the meeting, with Trump lying, saying that Israel has adhered to the Gaza ceasefire plan “100 percent” — even as Gaza officials say that Israel has now committed nearly 1,000 violations of the ceasefire, including in the killing of at least 418 civilians and injuring of over 1,100 so far.
Israel has also repeatedly violated its obligations to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. Gaza and humanitarian officials say that Israel is only approving a fraction of the aid it’s supposed to under the agreement.
This is only slated to become worse in the coming months. On Tuesday, Israel announced that it is banning nearly 40 humanitarian groups from operating in Gaza starting in 2026. This includes Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders — a major aid group that provides medical care in disaster zones and humanitarian crises.
The groups had refused to comply with strict new restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities for humanitarian groups. These included turning over detailed information like funding and worker names to Israeli authorities, as well as ideological requirements like pledging not to support the International Criminal Court’s prosecution of Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Israeli military’s blocking of humanitarian aid renders it ineligible to receive military assistance from the U.S., experts have long said, due to constraints outlined within U.S. law.
Humanitarian groups have warned for months that the restrictions would only serve to further hinder humanitarian aid and put their workers in yet more danger at the time of greatest need for Palestinians.
“[T]he process was designed to control independent organisations, silence advocacy, and censor humanitarian reporting,” a group of 100 humanitarian groups warned in a joint statement earlier this year.
Its aim is to “block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trusted humanitarian organisations with mechanisms that serve political and military objectives,” the groups added.
Further, Israel’s parliament passed legislation on Monday to place even further restrictions on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), removing its diplomatic immunity and barring Israeli companies from providing basic services like electricity and water to the group’s facilities.
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