That's it for today's live coverage of the war on Gaza and the parallel fighting between Hezbollah and Israel along the southern Lebanese border. Thanks for following — we'll be back tomorrow morning with more news updates and analysis. Goodnight!
An Israeli drone fired three missiles at a house in Jouaya, in Sour district, injuring six people, reports our correspondent in South Lebanon.
The targeted house is adjacent to that of Hussein Jachi, a member of parliament from the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, affiliated with Hezbollah. The six wounded were taken to local hospitals for treatment.
Qatar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that it has received an official response from Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza regarding the cease-fire proposal drawn up by Israel and announced by U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31.
“The two sides confirm that their joint mediation efforts with the United States of America will continue until an agreement is reached and that the mediators will examine the response and coordinate with the parties concerned regarding the next steps,” the ministry’s statement reads.
⚡ A joint statement released by Islamic Jihad and Hamas announced the groups have delivered to Qatari and Egyptian mediators their official response to the Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhaleh led the delegation that met with the Qatari prime minister this evening to give their response, which the statement says “prioritizes the interest of the Palestinian people, the need to stop the ongoing aggression on Gaza completely,” and for Israeli forces to “withdraw from the entire Gaza Strip.”
“The Palestinian delegation expressed its readiness to deal positively to reach an agreement to end this war against our people out of a sense of national responsibility,” the statement reads.
The UN Human Rights office says that the Israeli army’s attack on Nuseirat may amount to a war crime, citing the "principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution.”
In a statement, the UN expressed its “shock at the impact on civilians of the Israeli forces’ operation in An Nuseirat.” The statement added that they are “deeply distressed that Palestinian armed groups continue to hold many hostages, most of them civilians, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law.”
According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 274 people were killed in the attack. Testimonies from Palestinian eyewitnesses described helicopters "shooting and bombing randomly" and tanks that "filled the street and bombed any house that showed any movement," according to the Middle East Eye
Yemen’s Houthi claimed to break up US-Israel spy network, days after arresting at least 11 UN staffers, according to AP.
- Two rockets were fired from Lebanon towards the Israeli Ramtha site in the Kfar Shuba hills (Hasbaya district), according to a security source.
- An Israeli drone bombed the western district of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun).
- Hezbollah announced in three statements an attack on Israeli soldiers in Misgav Am, east of Markaba (Marjayoun), without providing the time; a second attack on the Ramtha site at 7:45 p.m.; and a third one on Kfar Blum, southeast of Kiryat Shmona — without providing the time. Hezbollah claimed that the last attack was launched in retaliation for the Israeli attack on Kafra.
- After Israeli struck Maroun al-Ras (Bint Jbeil district) with phosphorus ammunition, causing fires to erupt, the al-Rissala Scouts Association, affiliated with the Amal movement, announced that its rescue teams had participated in the fire-fighting operation.
- According to medical and security sources, the three civilians wounded in a drone strike in the town of Kafra are family members of ‘Abu Iyad’, an Amal military official for the Jabal Amil region.
The Israeli army named four soldiers killed in a booby-trapped building in Rafah. This brings the total number of troops killed in the ground offensive on Gaza to 298, according to Haaretz.
Here are the latest updates on the situation in southern Lebanon:
- Israeli aircraft bombed Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil district), according to local eyewitnesses.
- An Israeli drone struck al-Jabal hill in the town of Kafra (Bint Jbeil), according to residents. One civilian sustained minor injuries, while two others were transported to the closest hospitals with more severe injuries.
Our correspondent reports that among the casualties are a mother and her two sons who were gathering thyme when the strike occurred. According to a security source, the drone targeted the family's car after they had exited it. Their condition is stable.
Here are the latest developments in southern Lebanon:
- An employee of the South Lebanon Water Establishment was killed by an Israeli strike on Naqoura earlier today. The organization identified him as Saleh Ahmed Mahdi, adding that he was killed “while carrying out his duty to ensure the continuity of water supply in the town of Naqoura.”
According to L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the area, the Israeli strike targeted a small cafe where Mahdi was sitting.
- Israeli artillery shelling targeted a firefighting operation by the Union of Bint Jbeil District Municipalities, forcing the team to withdraw for safety, according to a security source.
- Hezbollah claimed in a statement to have successfully targeted Israeli soldiers deployed at "Horsh Baram," located opposite the town of Houla (Marjayoun), with missile weapons at 4:00 p.m.
- Israeli warplanes raided the town of Aitaroun, according to local eyewitnesses. Ambulances were dispatched to the targeted area.
Survivors of Saturday's massacre in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza have recounted a "nightmare" situation that killed 274 Palestinians and left over 700 wounded as part of an Israeli operation to free captives.
"Dozens of helicopters and quadcopters suddenly appeared in the sky. I thought it was an air aid, but they started shooting and bombing randomly,” Sharifa Hassan said to Middle East Eye. Hassan fled to Nuseirat with her family after Israel deemed it a “safe zone."
She remembers watching neighbors being left to bleed on the ground before the tanks arrived at the camp.
“They bombed any house that showed any movement. One tank moved over and crushed a man who was injured in his leg," she said.
Witnesses recounted to Middle East Eye that they fled to a nearby school, all unsure of what was happening until the forces withdrew.
"This was not an operation to free captives - it was a massacre, killing more innocent children and women," another survivor added.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced, during a visit to Jordan today, that the U.S. is providing an additional $404 million in "lifesaving humanitarian aid" for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
According to a statement by the U.S. State Department, the aid brings the total U.S. contribution to Palestinians to $674 million since the war broke out in October.
"It is time for everyone to step up. And for those who have already given generously, give more," Blinken told an emergency aid conference in Jordan, cited by AFP.
The U.S. Congress has banned further contributions to the main provider of assistance on the ground — UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, after Israel alleged in January that a number of the agency's employees may have participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
According to American think tank The Council on Foreign Relations, since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024 and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April 2024.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “It is high time for a cease-fire in Gaza along with the unconditional release of all hostages,” in a post on his X account.
He added that he welcomed “the peace initiative recently outlined by President Joe Biden,” urging the implementation of international humanitarian law.
Biden proposed a three-stage cease-fire proposal on May 31 that the U.N. Security Council voted to support yesterday with 14 in favor, and Russia abstaining. A Hamas official told Reuters earlier today that the party has agreed to the cease-fire outlined in the Security Council's resolution.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the reforms announced by the Palestinian Authority during a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Jordan on Tuesday, the State Department said in a statement.
He also "discussed with Prime Minister Mustafa the need for full and consistent implementation of these reforms to achieve the aspirations of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza" and "reaffirmed the United States' support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel," Reuters reported.
The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the adoption by the U.N. Security Council of the U.S. resolution supporting the Gaza cease-fire plan.
In a statement, Lebanese diplomacy also expressed the hope that this resolution “will have a positive impact on the situation in Lebanon and that Resolution 1701 (which put an end to the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah) will be fully implemented in order to achieve lasting stability in South Lebanon.”
An Israeli government official said that the latest Gaza proposal would allow Israel to achieve all the goals it needs to achieve before it can end the war.
“Israel will not end the war until it has achieved all its objectives: Destroying Hamas's military and governing capabilities, releasing all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel in the future,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.
“The proposal presented allows Israel to achieve these objectives and Israel will do so.”
Benny Gantz, who resigned from Israel's war cabinet, told the US Secretary of State that if the threat from Hezbollah in northern Israel is not removed, “Israel will not hesitate to act forcefully” against the Lebanese group.
More than 37,164 Palestinians have been killed and 84,832 wounded in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza's Ministry of Health said in a statement on Tuesday.
Hundreds of parents whose children serve as soldiers in the Israeli army addressed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi in an open letter, according to Haaretz.
They criticized the Knesset's decision to approve the law exempting ultra-Orthodox men from serving in the army and said they no longer supported the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
“We let our children know that they must stop the fighting immediately, lay down their weapons and return home immediately,” the parents wrote. "It is unthinkable that such a law should be passed while brave soldiers are sacrificing their lives. The government is betraying its citizens by giving up the lives of our sons, but for reasons of political survival, it will not endanger the lives of others. We will not sacrifice our children on the altar of public corruption."
Here are the latest developments in southern Lebanon:
- Israeli artillery fire targeted Yaroun (Bint Jbeil), Kfar Kila and Khiam (Marjeyoun), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent in South Lebanon.
- At 1:06 p.m., Hezbollah claimed to have successfully targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in Metulla, which faces the Lebanese village of Khiam.
More details on the Israeli strike on Naqoura:
The Israeli strike targeted a cafe where an official of the Mount Lebanon Water Authority was staying. The man succumbed to his injuries, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.
A missile hit two houses in the Nabaa district of the village of Fneideq in Akkar (North Lebanon) on Monday night, during the Israeli attack on trucks in the Hermel caza on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Read the full story here.
Update on the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border:
- An Israeli drone fired a missile at an uninhabited building in Kfar Kila (Marjeyoun), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent in South Lebanon.
- An Israeli drone also struck Naqoura. Rescue workers were dispatched to the scene and hospitalized one injured person.
The U.N. said it was both “deeply shocked” by the impact on civilians of the Israeli operation to free the hostages and “deeply distressed” by the fact that Palestinian groups continue to hold hostages.
“All these actions, by both sides, could amount to war crimes,” stressed the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, while adding that he had no independent way of verifying the Hamas death toll of 274 civilians in Gaza, but “considers it close to 100% accurate”.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Hamas's statement in support of the U.N. resolution backing a proposed cease-fire in Gaza was a “hopeful sign,” but that what matters is the word emanating from the leadership of the Palestinian militant group in Gaza.
Discussions on plans for Gaza after the cease-fire will continue this afternoon and over the next two days, Blinken said. “It is imperative that we have these plans,” he added.
Hamas accepts the U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution and is ready to negotiate the details, Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Hezbollah has announced the death of a third member, Hadi Fouad Moussa, from Shebaa. According to L'Orient Today's correspondent in South Lebanon, he was killed in Israeli strikes on Hermel.
The party also claimed to have targeted Israeli soldiers gathered in the vicinity of the Netu'a settlement at 9 a.m., causing deaths and injuries. It also targeted the headquarters of the artillery regiment and armored brigade of the 210th Golan division in the Yarden barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets in response to the Israeli strike on the Bekaa.
At the invitation of King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Arab leaders are meeting today in Jordan for an emergency international conference to assess the humanitarian response to Gaza.
Hezbollah announced the death of two of its members, Abbas Mohammad Nasser, from Tayr Falsay, and Bilal Wajih Alaa, from Majdel Slim.
According to L'Orient Today's correspondents in South Lebanon and Bekaa, the two men were killed in Israeli strikes targeting Hermel on Monday evening. L'Orient Today's correspondent also reports that three Syrians were killed in the strikes.
AFP reported five dead, including three Syrians working with Hezbollah.
An update on the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border on Monday night:
- Hezbollah claimed to have intercepted and repelled an Israeli plane that violated Lebanese airspace.
- Israeli fighter jets broke the sound barrier at 11 p.m. over the area between Saida and Iqlim al-Kharoub and launched incendiary balloons.
- Israeli warplanes carried out three strikes on the village of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil) at 11:30 p.m.
The Israeli army announced that four soldiers had been killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip the previous day, more than eight months after the start of the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The soldiers were “killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip” on Monday, the army said in a statement, without giving details of the circumstances of their deaths.
In Lebanon, five people were killed before midnight on Monday, including three Syrians working with Hezbollah, in Israeli strikes targeting a convoy of tanker trucks in Hermel, which was entering the country from neighboring Syria, according to an NGO and a military source quoted by AFP.
“Three Syrians working with Hezbollah and two Lebanese were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a convoy of tanker trucks entering Lebanon on the border with Syria, on the road between Hermel and Qousseir,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
During the night, Israeli strikes continued across the Gaza Strip, with hospital sources reporting Palestinians killed in the center of the territory, where Israeli bombardment has been concentrated for the past week.
In the West Bank, four Palestinians, one of whom was suspected by Israel of an attack, were killed late on Monday evening by the Israeli army near Ramallah, in a new round of local tensions on the bangs of the war in Gaza.
After a stopover in Egypt, where he called on regional countries to “put pressure on Hamas” to agree to a cease-fire, Antony Blinken met Benjamin Netanyahu for around two hours in Jerusalem on Monday to discuss the plan and Gaza.
Blinken stressed that “the proposal on the table would pave the way for calm along Israel's northern border” with Lebanon and “deeper integration” of Israel “with countries in the region”, according to the State Department.
“I firmly believe that the overwhelming majority” of Israelis and Palestinians “want to believe in a future” in which both peoples “would live in peace and security,” it added.
In a statement, Hamas “welcomed” the Security Council's resolution, underlining that it “wishes to reaffirm its willingness to cooperate with the mediating brothers to enter into indirect negotiations regarding the implementation of these principles.”
The Islamist movement is referring to its demands for a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank but is expected to play a role in the post-war situation in Gaza, described the Security Council vote as a “step in the right direction.”
The secretary of state's eighth regional tour since the start of the war comes as the U.N. Security Council on Monday adopted a draft U.S. resolution supporting the ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas.
The text, which “welcomes” the truce proposal announced on May 31 by US President Joe Biden, received 14 votes in favor, with Russia abstaining.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet Israeli opposition leaders today as part of a new tour of the Middle East.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the top U.S. diplomat will meet with Benny Gantz, a resigning member of Israel's war cabinet, in Tel Aviv in the morning, followed by opposition leader Yair Lapid, before heading to Jordan.
Make sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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