Reports surfaced in Arab media outlets Wednesday that Israel’s Air Force had bombed targets near Damascus overnight Tuesday, including a convoy carrying strategic weapons to the Lebanese Shi’ite terror militia Hezbollah. Israel had no comment on the reports, in keeping with standard policy, but a statement by Hezbollah seemed to confirm them. The incident came as anti-Assad regime resistance in the northern city of Aleppo seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

The seventh Fatah General Congress opened in Ramallah on Tuesday, with PA President Mahmoud Abbas presiding over the meeting of around 1,300 delegates from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and around the world. The Congress wasted no time in electing Abbas for fresh terms as the leader of the Party’s Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council, although analysts have increasingly voiced concerns in recent days that there is no plan for who will take over the fragile Palestinian institutions on the day after Abbas, who is 84 years old and rumored to be in poor health, leaves the scene.

Senior Israeli Defense officials expressed excitement this week as the first F-35I Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, manufactured by American defense giant Lockheed Martin, were scheduled to land in Israel. The 50 aircraft Israel has so far ordered will, they said, give the Jewish State air superiority in the region for decades to come.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on his government’s commitment to the JCPOA nuclear agreement and disparaged President Hassan Rouhani for engaging with “open dialogue” with Western countries during a fiery speech before a group of Naval officers Sunday. “The West is not obligated to the deal that some of our leaders signed on to,” Khamenei said.

Israel’s Health Ministry released statistics ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 Thursday showing, among other things, that there has been a “significant decline” in the rates of HIV infections in Israel among the overall population. In related news, a Health Ministry study released this week shows that poor nutrition, especially growing rates of junk food consumption, costs the government NIS 6 billion a year in various health related expenses.

In Monday’s New York Times, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter writes that “America must recognize Palestine” and presents a version of Israeli reality that simply takes leave of the facts. Granting diplomatic recognition to “the state of Palestine” will no more make it a legitimate and genuine country than granting diplomatic recognition to Plains, Ga.