{"id":1706,"date":"2022-11-10T19:07:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T18:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2025-06-11T10:22:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T08:22:00","slug":"iranian-drones-in-ukraine-challenge-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/iranian-drones-in-ukraine-challenge-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian drones in Ukraine challenge Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iranian drones in Ukraine challenge Israel<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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Russia\u2019s use of Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine is putting big pressure on Israel. At stake are Israel\u2019s relationship with the West, Russian-Israeli cooperation in Syria\u2019s airspace and the fate of Russian Jews, and more<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Iran-made drones supplied to Russia in support of its war effort in Ukraine risk drawing Israel into the war. Photo: Fars News\/Mehdi Bolourian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I<\/span>ran-made drones are being used by Russia in the war against Ukraine, complicating Israel\u2019s balancing-act between Russia and the West. Israel has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine but has refused repeated requests for air defense systems and military equipment. Israel hasn\u2019t imposed economic sanctions against Russia either.
\nThe news in mid-October that Moscow was using drones from Israel\u2019s main enemy, Iran, hiked pressure on Israel to support Ukraine in the war. Military spokesman, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, said that the use of drones in Ukraine has raised new concerns in Israel.
\n\u2013 We are looking at it carefully and thinking about how these might be used by the Iranians against Israeli population centers, he told the Times of Israel.
\nThe debate was started by an Israeli minister who called on the previous government to side with Ukraine.
\n\u2013 There is no longer any doubt about where Israel should stand in this bloody conflict, wrote Nachman Shai, Israel\u2019s then Minister of Diaspora Affairs, on Twitter.
\n\u2013 We in Israel have gained a lot of experience protecting our civilian population for over 30 years. We have been targeted by missiles from Iraq and rockets from Lebanon and Gaza, said Shai, a former military spokesman, to The Associated Press (AP).
\n\u2013 I\u2019m talking about defense equipment to protect Ukraine\u2019s civilian population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Medvedev issues warning<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that military aid from Israel to Ukraine would be \u201ca very reckless move\u201d.
\n\u2013 It will destroy all bilateral relations between our countries, he wrote, according to the Times of Israel.
\nFormer Prime Minister Yair Lapid declined to comment, but then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz stressed that Israel\u2019s policy toward Ukraine will not change.
\nRussia and Israel have long coordinated their actions in the airspace over Syria to avoid collisions, with Russia allowing Israeli bombers to target Iranian weapon depots intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
\nAnother Russian Israeli issue of contention is the safety of Russian Jews, due to renewed anti-Semitic attacks in Russia, which has a history of pogroms under the Tsar, and purges during the Soviet era.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Iron Dome<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized Israel for not providing Kyiv with the Iron Dome air defense system. Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident, added his criticism of his country\u2019s reluctance to help Ukraine, in an interview with the Haaretz daily.
\nAccording to the Associated Press, (AP) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has spoken with Israel\u2019s former Prime Minister Yair Lapid about the Iranian-made drones.
\nLapid expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d about the military ties between Russia and arch-enemy Iran, the AP reported. Ukraine said its air defenses had shot down 223 Iranian drones since mid-September.
\nThe Kremlin says it has no knowledge of its country\u2019s military using Iranian drones in Ukraine, and Tehran has said that reports that it is supplying Russia with weapons are \u201cbaseless.\u201d EU countries that found evidence supporting Kiev\u2019s claims adopted sanctions against Iran for the country\u2019s supply of drones to Russia. The White House also confirmed to Ukraine information about Iran\u2019s involvement in the war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranian drones in Ukraine challenge Israel Russia\u2019s use of Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine is putting big pressure on Israel. At stake are Israel\u2019s relationship with the West, Russian-Israeli cooperation in Syria\u2019s airspace and the fate of Russian Jews, and more Iran-made drones supplied to Russia in support of its war effort in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modern-israel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3634,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions\/3634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}