Photo: Maayan Toaf / GPO, via Channel 13 (archive)
Israeli security officials were taken by surprise by President Donald Trump’s claim that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to end annual U.S. military aid to Israel, Channel 13 reported Tuesday. The report described uncertainty inside the defense establishment, not a confirmed implementation of an aid cutoff.
Channel 13 military correspondent Alon Ben David reported at 7:59pm Israel time, or 12:59pm EST, that officials had not been aware of the understandings Trump described in his morning Fox News interview. Trump said the annual assistance, which the report’s body put at $4 billion, would stop from the next budget year.
An unnamed senior IDF official told Channel 13 that Trump’s announcement had landed on the security establishment like “a thunderclap on a clear day.” The report said the potential change would affect purchases of combat aircraft, helicopters and advanced munitions.
Questions over the agreement and joint defense projects
A security official quoted by the broadcaster said it remained unclear whether Trump would actually cancel the agreement in effect through 2028, or whether joint projects involving the Arrow, Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems would stop.
Those questions remained unanswered in Channel 13’s report. It did not identify an implementing order, describe a completed termination of the memorandum of understanding or establish that any of the joint programs had been halted.
JBizNews earlier reported Trump’s claim that an agreement with Netanyahu would end $4 billion a year in U.S. funding to Israel by the end of 2026. The new Channel 13 account adds the reported reaction inside Israel’s security establishment. It does not independently confirm that the claimed arrangement has taken legal or operational effect.
JBizNews Desk | Jerusalem
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