That's it for today's live news updates from the war on Gaza and its repercussions in Lebanon, the region, and the world. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow morning to continue our coverage. Goodnight!
The Israeli army confirmed reports that rockets fired from Lebanon earlier today killed a civilian and wounded five soldiers on the Israeli side of the border, AFP reports.
"On the northern border, a civilian was killed today from an anti-tank missile that hit Adamit," a town on the border with Lebanon, army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.
The army said in a statement that "several anti-tank missile launches were identified from Lebanon," and that one soldier was moderately wounded and four others were lightly hurt.
⚡ An Israeli citizen was killed by an anti-missile strike fired on the northern Israeli town of Adamit from southern Lebanon, Haaretz reports. The strike also wounded five soldiers, four of them with mild injuries and one with moderate injuries.
Haaretz did not provide any further details, but other Israeli media attributed the attack to Hezbollah, referring to a rocket launched toward Israeli positions from which the army was controlling a surveillance balloon that was intercepted this afternoon. According to our correspondent in the South, Hezbollah has not launched any attacks toward northern Israel since late afternoon.
More than two-thirds of people in England want a cease-fire in Gaza, according to a survey conducted by the international Internet-based data analytics firm YouGov earlier this week.
According to the survey's results, 69 percent of respondents said they believe Israel should stop its war on Gaza, while only 13 percent Israel should continue on with its campaign, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave.
The figures are up from 66 percent in February and represents 10 percent increase compared to November, 2023, a month after the war started. Support for the war dipped from 20 to 13 percent during the same period.
Eighty percent of those who say they sympathize with both sides of the conflict also called for a cease-fire.
Updates from southern Lebanon:
• Hezbollah announced having launched four attacks on northern Israel. Two of them targeted buildings used by the Israeli army in Avivim at 3:15 p.m., and Malikiya (time unspecified), not far from Maroun al-Ras, in Bint Jbeil district, in retaliation for the Israeli strike earlier in the day on Yaroun around noon. A third targeted the Maale Golani barracks, at 4 p.m. in the same area, and a fourth at 4:50 p.m. targeted the Sammaka site in the disputed hills of Kfar Shuba.
• According to residents contacted by our correspondent in the South, Israeli aircraft bombed the center of Kfar Kila, Marjayoun district. Emergency response teams were dispatched to the scene and at least one injured person was taken to hospital.
Inland Rafah is a "ghost town" according to an UNRWA spokesperson on the ground in southern Gaza, sharing updates on her X account. "It’s hard to believe there were over 1 million people sheltering here just a week ago."
The Israeli army sent troops in to Rafah last week, prompting over 350,000 people to flee the city, according to aid officials cited by The Guardian.
"Families have moved as far west as possible, now reaching the shore and along the beach," writes Louise Wateridge, who has been sharing regular videos and updates from UNRWA facilities in Gaza. "Today, awoken by navy shelling."
Thousands of Israeli participated in a "Gaza March" today, calling for the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian enclave, according to Israeli media reports. Several politicians, including National Security Minister Itmar Ben-Gvir, Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi spoke at the rally.
Referring to when illegal Israeli settlements were removed from Gaza in 2005, MP Zvi Sukkot from the Religious Zionism party told the crowd: "When they dragged away our righteous settlers from their home, we vowed to return, and now we are more determined than ever."
There have been concerns, expressed by Palestinians and the global community alike since the outbreak of the conflict, that Israel is carrying out its war on Gaza with the intention to forcibly displace its residents from the land. During his speech at the rally, Ben-Gvir called Jewish settlements in Gaza the "true solution," Haaretz reported.
"First, we must return to Gaza now!" he told the crowd. "We are coming home! To the holy land! And second," he continued, "we must encourage emigration. Encourage the voluntary emigration of the residents of Gaza. It is moral!"
Egypt is considering a downgrade in its diplomatic ties with Israel, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing Egyptian officials. Tensions between the two countries — neighbors with a tumultuous history who signed a peace deal 45 years ago — have risen since Israeli troops took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
In recent days, Egypt announced it would join South Africa's case at the ICJ charging Israel with genocide and earlier today, WSJ reported that Cairo, a key player in mediation between Israel and Hamas, is considering pulling its ambassador in Tel Aviv.
“As we stand, there are no plans to suspend ties or throw away Camp David,” an Egyptian official told WSJ, referring to the Camp David Accords that led to the 1979 peace treaty. “But as long as Israeli forces remain at Rafah crossing, Egypt will not send a single truck to Rafah.”
A screenshot from a video of the surveillance balloon flown by the Israeli army and intercepted by Hezbollah on May 14, 2024. (Credit: Video sent to our correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah)
⚡ The Israeli army has confirmed Hezbollah's earlier announcement that Israeli troops lost control of a surveillance balloon somewhere over the Adamit hills, in southern Lebanon.
The army, cited in a Haaretz report, said the balloon was hit by a rocket launched toward Western Galilee (northern Israel) and that the surveillance equipment fell inside Lebanon. According to Haaretz, Lebanese reports say "locals" took the balloon into their possession. The Israeli army claims there are no concerns regarding intelligence leaks.
An update on the situation in southern Lebanon:
- Civil defense teams from al-Rissala Scouts Association went to the scene of the strike that targeted Yaroun around midday (Bint Jbeil), causing massive destruction, according to testimonies from residents, and injuring four with a range of moderate to light injuries.
- In a press release, Hezbollah claimed to have destroyed three posts from which the Israeli army was piloting a spy balloon that the party had followed from the Adamit hill, opposite the Lebanese village of Alma al-Shaab (Sour). Hezbollah claimed that Israeli troops had lost control of the balloon and that its attacks had caused deaths and injuries.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday accused Israeli forces of striking at least eight convoys or buildings belonging to humanitarian organizations in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on Oct. 7.
“These eight events reveal fundamental flaws in the so-called ‘deconfliction system,’ which is supposed to protect humanitarian workers and enable them to distribute vital humanitarian aid in Gaza,” HRW said.
The targeted organizations “had provided their contact details to the Israeli authorities, in order to guarantee their own protection,” and the “Israeli authorities did not give any of them advance warning” before the shootings, notes HRW.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has claimed that “nearly 450,000” people in Rafah have been displaced since Israel ordered the evacuation of part of this southern Gaza Strip city on May 6.
“Nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since May 6,” who “are exhausted, hungry and constantly afraid," wrote UNRWA on the social network X, without specifying where these displaced people have gone, elsewhere in Rafah or outside the city, which is home to 1.4 million people according to the UN.
Since May 6, the Israeli army has ordered the inhabitants of several eastern districts of Rafah to evacuate, before beginning bombardments and “targeted operations” on the ground.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has announced that it will hold hearings on Thursday and Friday at the request of South Africa, which has brought the case before the court to demand that Israel withdraw its troops from Rafah.
The UN's highest court will hear South Africa's lawyers on Thursday, and Israel's response the following day, it said in a statement.
Humanitarian aid has not reached the people of the Gaza Strip since May 9, Qatar has claimed.
“Our brothers in the Gaza Strip have received no aid since May 9, which bears witness to the perpetuation of the humanitarian catastrophe” in the Palestinian territory devastated by more than seven months of war, said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.
The Israeli army said that the UN vehicle hit by gunfire that killed one of its employees on Monday in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, was in an “area of ongoing fighting,” according to a statement sent to AFP on Tuesday.
According to the UN, a member of the UN security service (UNDSS) was killed on Monday when an unspecified number of shots were fired at a UN vehicle. It was the first death of an international UN employee in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war on Oct. 7.
Another UNDSS staff member was wounded in the fire, said Antonio Gutteres, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, adding that the vehicle had been hit on its way to the European hospital in Rafah.
Israeli police have opened an investigation after activists blocked and vandalized at least seven humanitarian aid trucks bound for the Gaza Strip, according to a statement received by AFP.
Following a “disturbance of public order” on Monday, “law enforcement agencies opened an investigation which led to the arrest of several suspects,” the Israeli police spokesman said in the statement.
The trucks were blocked in Israel, shortly after the Tarqumiya crossing with the occupied West Bank, and near the nearby Israeli village of Shekef.
Israeli media claim that the activists are members of Tsav 9, a collective that has already blocked humanitarian aid trucks to the Gaza Strip on several occasions.
Update on the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border:
- Israeli jets struck the village of Yaroun (Bint Jbeil), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent in South Lebanon.
- Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of Fardis-Rashaya al-Foukhar (Hasbaya), according to local residents.
Israel last week proposed to the Palestinian Authority that it send representatives to the Rafah crossing to help reopen it, but not in an official capacity, four senior American, Israeli and Palestinian officials told Axios.
This is the first time since the start of the war that Israel has agreed to discuss the participation of the Palestinian Authority in the management of the Gaza Strip.
Talks are continuing, US and Israeli officials told Axios, noting that the Palestinian Authority has not categorically rejected the possibility of sending representatives.
The latest developments on the Lebanese-Israeli border:
- Hezbollah has announced the death of one of its members, Hussein Abbas Isa, from the village of Mais al-Jabal.
According to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, the man was killed in the strike that targeted this village in the morning. Earlier in the morning, Civil Defense scouts affiliated with the Amal movement claimed to have taken part in rescue operations in Mais al-Jabal and transported an injured person to hospital.
- Israeli jets struck the villages of Kfar Hamam and Rashaya al-Foukhar (Hasbaya).
Israel's military operation at Rafah has “set back” negotiations with Hamas, according to the Qatari prime minister, mediator in truce talks in the Gaza Strip, stressing that talks were “almost at an impasse”.
“Unfortunately, things haven't moved in the right direction, and right now we're almost at an impasse. Of course, what happened at Rafah has set us back,” said Prime Minister Mohammad ben Abdulrahman Al-Thani, speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum.
This morning, Israeli jets carried out a strike on the Qandouli neighborhood in the village of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), reports L'Orient Today's correspondent in South Lebanon, quoting a security source.
A house was targeted and ambulances were dispatched to the scene.
An update on the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border on Monday night:
- At 11 p.m.: Israeli artillery fire targeted the village of Khiam (Marjayoun caza) and Hamames Hill near the village. Several rockets also targeted the village of Kfar Kila.
- At 11:30 p.m.: Hezbollah claimed to have targeted two buildings used by Israeli soldiers in Metula, opposite the Lebanese village of Khiam, on Monday.
- At 12:45 p.m.: Israeli jets carried out two strikes on a house in Khiam.
- At 1 a.m.: Israeli jets fired four rockets at a house in Kfar Kila.
The Gazan Ministry of Health has announced a new death toll of 35,173 in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
In the space of 24 hours, at least 82 additional deaths were recorded, according to a statement from the ministry, which also reported 79,061 wounded in more than seven months of war.
Fighting also continued on the Lebanese-Israeli border between Hezbollah and Israel.
On Monday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that “Israel has not achieved any of its objectives in this war” and was “in a stalemate."
Find the details of the Hezbollah leader's speech here.
According to the UN, the delivery of aid to Gaza has remained virtually blocked since Israel closed the Rafah crossing, crucial for the entry of humanitarian convoys, last week.
On Monday, a UN security staff member was killed in an attack on his vehicle en route to a hospital in Rafah, the organization's first international employee to be killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.
Fighting has also been raging for several days in Jabalia and Gaza City, where the Israeli army has claimed that Hamas is “trying to rebuild its military capabilities.”
Here too, army evacuation orders have forced Palestinians to flee, while the UN says that “no place is safe in the Gaza Strip”.
“We're moving from one place to another, but the bombardments continue everywhere,” Mahmoud al-Barsh, a Palestinian who arrived in Gaza City from Jabalia, ravaged after more than seven months of strikes and fighting, told AFP.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers an operation in Rafah, which he sees as the Islamist movement's last major stronghold, to be essential to destroying Hamas.
“We continue to work with Israel on a better way to ensure the defeat of Hamas throughout Gaza, including at Rafah” rather “than see Israel bogged down in a never-ending counter-insurgency campaign,” stressed White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday.
The Israeli army stepped up its air strikes in the Gaza Strip early this morning, as Palestinian civilians continued to flee the violence, especially in Rafah, threatened by a major Israeli offensive.
In the early hours of the day, witnesses and AFP correspondents reported airstrikes in various sectors of Gaza, with Palestinian civil defense reporting at least eight dead in a bombardment on a building in the Nousseirat camp (center).
Strikes also targeted the Rafah area (south), where almost 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded together.
Be sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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