Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 222?

The US House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday on the "Israel Security Assistance Support Act," a spokesperson for Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) told The Post, which Republicans introduced last week after US President Joe Biden announced the stalling of at least one arms delivery to Israel and threatened to withhold future shipments pending the Israeli Defense Force's operation in Rafah. 

Calvert, chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairman, leads the bill which condemns the White House's withholding of arms and calls for the Biden administration to allow "all previously approved arms transfers" to Israel to proceed quickly and utilize all congressionally appropriated funds for security assistance for Israel as Congress intended.

"On Israel’s 76th Independence Day, let us renew our American alliance with Israel. Amid an ongoing war, where its people are fighting for their survival, we must stand with Israel," Calvert said in a Tuesday post on X.

The legislation prohibits the Pentagon or State Department from withholding, halting, reversing, or canceling defense articles or services made available under any appropriations act from the US to Israel in 2024 or any prior years. 

According to the legislation, any withheld defense articles will have to be delivered to Israel within 15 days of the bill's passing. 

"Thus far in fiscal year 2024, Congress has enacted regular and supplemental legislation appropriating $12.5 billion in security assistance and missile defense for Israel without any additional conditions," according to the bill. 

The US State Department has moved a $1 billion package of weapons aid for Israel into the congressional review process, a US official said on Tuesday.

The latest weapons package includes tank rounds, mortars and armored tactical vehicles, one of the officials told Reuters.

It includes the potential transfer of $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials.

The chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs committees review major foreign weapons deals.

The Gaza activist flotilla continues to be unable to set sale to the Palestinian coastal territory after the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) lost the state flag for two vessels on April 26, though a smaller ship was launched from Norway, arriving in Germany on May 13.

The FFC is seeking another state flag after Guinea Bissau International Ships Registry requested an inspection and revoked its flag from the lead ship Akdenez and the flotilla's cargo ship.

The loss of the state flag for two of the three flotilla vessels was orchestrated by Israel, the organization claimed.

The IDF successfully intercepted two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) en route to Israel from the east, the IDF reported in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Both UAVs did not cross Israel's borders.

An Israel Air Force (IAF) aircraft killed senior Hezbollah field commander Hussain Ibrahim Mekky in the area of Tyre in southern Lebanon during an overnight operation on Tuesday, the military said on Wednesday morning.

The IDF said Mekky was responsible for planning and carrying out many terror attacks against Israeli territory, civilians, and home since the beginning of the war.  

Earlier on Tuesday, Lebanon's state news agency reported that at least two people were killed by an alleged Israeli airstrike targeting a car in southern Lebanon's Tyre.

Two Lebanese security sources told Reuters that a field commander from Lebanon's Hezbollah was one of those killed.

Sergeant Eira Yair Gispan, 19, from Petah Tikva, a soldier in the 75th Battalion, 7th Armored Brigade, fell in combat in southern Gaza on Tuesday, the military said on Wednesday morning.