The IDF spokesperson’s office announced on Friday that Israeli warplanes carried out strike missions in Syria overnight and were targeted by anti-aircraft missiles which missed the planes but later landed in Israeli territory. The missiles prompted an alert siren in Aravot HaYarden Regional Council in Israel’s Jordan Valley, while witnesses in Jerusalem said they heard the explosion from the impact. There were no reports of damage or injuries in Israel.

The budget proposed by the Trump Administration in the US leaves the $3.1 billion in foreign military financing for Israel agreed to by the Obama Administration last year intact, despite deep cuts in other areas of spending affecting America’s international relations, including contributions to the UN. The presentation of the budget proposal came as the Administration’s envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, was in Jerusalem on the last leg of a regional tour to consult with Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman issued a statement on Thursday labeling the Palestinian National Fund as a terrorist organization due to “its continuous and sustained support to entities responsible for serious terrorist activity against Israel.” The statement continued by explaining that the Fund, which calls itself a charity, actually pays money to the families of suicide bombers and terrorists serving prison terms for murdering Israelis.

Balad MK Basel Ghattas agreed to a plea bargain Thursday, confessing to smuggling cellphones to security prisoners in Ketziot Prison in the Negev during visits there, for which he will spend two years in prison himself and give up his seat in the Knesset. MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu) lamented the sentence, saying “This light punishment harms the deterrence effect and will encourage shameful acts like these in future.”

Around 30,000 people from around Israel and the world participated Friday morning in the annual Jerusalem Marathon. Kenyan Shadrack Kipkogey was the first to cross the finish line of the full marathon, recording a time of 2:17:36. Hundreds of police officers were on hand to protect the event from threats to disrupt it by Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jewish groups as well as anti-Israel protesters who held up signs declaring that the route of the race was “occupied land”.

Would the U.S. remain a member of an organization that condemned it for human rights abuses more frequently than it did Syria, North Korea, and Iran? Yet, the U.S. is currently a member of the UN Human Rights Council that does precisely that to Israel, America’s foremost democratic Middle Eastern ally. Over the past nine years, the UNHRC has condemned Israel 61 times, as opposed to its 16 resolutions on Syria and five on Iran. Denunciations of Israel outnumber those of all other countries combined.

Researchers at the Technion Institute for Technology in Haifa recently announced the development of new treatments for various infections and bacteria which are resistant to anti-biotic drugs. The growing problem of such infections claims the lives of hundreds of people daily around the world, making the Israeli research vitally important to every human being living in the world today.