Thank you for joining our live coverage of the Gaza War, the conflict in South Lebanon and the repercussions both have on the region.
Tune in tomorrow for the latest updates.
More updates from South Lebanon:
- Hezbollah claimed to have successfully targeted the Samaka site in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills at 8:05 p.m.
- In response to the Israeli attack on the village of Sohmor in Western Bekaa on Thursday, Hezbollah announced it launched an airstrike using a squadron of exploding drones on the new headquarters of the 411th Artillery Battalion in Ja'toun. The group added that the strike targeted the camp and tents of the battalion's officers and soldiers, “hitting their targets with precision, causing deaths and injuries, and starting fires.”
Responding to the travel advisory of several countries that have advised their citizens to avoid or leave Lebanon, caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, called for "replacing these statements, which sow concern among citizens and visitors, with solidarity stances instead" while calling for "intensified efforts and pressure on Israel to end to its military aggression."
Here are the latest developments in South Lebanon:
- Hezbollah announced the death of one of its fighters, Moustafa Hussein Yassin, from the village of Kfar Tibnit. According to our correspondent, the victim was killed in the Israeli airstrike on Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), which hit a three-story building and caused several injuries.
- Hezbollah announced that it has successfully targeted Israeli soldiers gathered in Shlomi in response to the Israeli strike on Shihine (Sour).
- Hezbollah announced that it had also successfully struck the Israeli site of Roueissat al-Qarn, in the disputed farms of Shebaa, with missiles at 8:00 p.m.
More updates on Gaza, as reported by AFP today:
- Israeli military conducts raids and airstrikes in northern Gaza, claiming to have killed "dozens" of Hamas militants — in an area where it had declared the command structure of Hamas dismantled months ago.
- Israeli forces targeted Gaza's civil defense headquarters in western Rafah, causing casualties and damaging vehicles and equipment, the civil defense reported.
- The Israeli military announced the death of a soldier in combat in southern Gaza, bringing total military casualties to 314 since ground operations began.
- Paramedics in central Gaza report three deaths in Deir al-Balah; AFP images show the destruction of the municipal building.
- According to the Gaza health ministry, at least 37,765 people were killed by Israel since Oct. 7.
Here are the latest updates Reuters reported on the developments in Gaza today:
- Amidst Israeli airstrikes, the army continued their incursion deeper into northern and southern Gaza today.
- Palestinian health officials said tank shelling in Rafah killed at least 11 people
- Residents reported tanks advancing further west into the Shakoush neighborhood of Rafa, forcing thousands of displaced people there to flee northward to Khan Younis.
- A resident, who spoke to Reuters via a chat app, said some bulldozers in the Shakoush area were piling up sand for Israeli tanks to station behind.
"Some families live in the area of the raid and are now besieged by the occupation forces," he told Reuters.
"The situation there is very dangerous and many families are leaving towards Khan Younis, even from the Mawasi area as things became unsafe for them.”
Latest updates from South Lebanon:
The Israeli army shelled the western outskirts of Rashaya Fawqar in Hasbaya district, residents of the village told L'Orient Today.
The Biden administration plans to release 500-pound bombs from a previously withheld weapons shipment to Israel, which had been paused in April due to U.S. concerns over Israeli military actions in Rafah, officials from both countries told Axios.
This move indicates reduced U.S. concern about the use of these bombs in Gaza and aims to ease tensions between President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's supporters over the delay.
However, another part of the shipment containing 1,800 2,000-pound bombs is still under review.
The decision follows weeks of discussions between U.S. and Israeli officials, amid a recent crisis sparked by remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Despite progress, the shipment of the larger bombs remains pending approval, Axios reported.
Yesterday, a group of critically ill children left Gaza in the first evacuation in weeks, reported the Washington Post.
The evacuation was coordinated by Israel, Egypt and the U.S. and followed weeks of pressure on Israel to allow sick Palestinians to leave the strip.
The convoy included 21 children, most of whom are cancer patients, said Mohammed Zaqout, the head of Gaza’s hospital network, reported the Washington Post.
“They are at risk of death due to a lack of treatment and necessary health care,” Zaqout said at a press conference outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Here are the latest developments in southern Lebanon:
- Hezbollah claimed to have successfully targeted Israeli soldiers gathered on the hill of al-Tayhat at 3:42 p.m.
- The Israeli airstrike reported earlier that targeted a three-story building in Kfar Kila has resulted in injuries, some of which are serious, our correspondent said.
The U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Wasp and its Marines are being deployed to the eastern Mediterranean to serve as a deterrent and provide the U.S. military with options amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel along the Lebanon border, according to three U.S. officials cited in ABC News.
The USS Oak Hill, already operating in the Mediterranean, will join the Wasp. The USS New York, the third ship in the Wasp's Amphibious Ready Group, will soon join them in the eastern Mediterranean, a U.S. official said.
Photo provided by our correspondent in South Lebanon
An Israeli drone "dropped incendiary materials or projectiles" on a farm near Tallet al-Hamames in the Wazzani region (Marjayoun), causing fires to erupt in the area, residents told our correspondent.
A combination picture of a satellite image (L) of woodland by the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab near the Israeli border, taken on October 23, 2023, and the same area (R) showing marks following months of ongoing cross-border hostilities (Credit:
Located just 1 km from the border, Aita al-Shaab is one of the areas most heavily bombarded by Israel, Hashem Haidar, head of the Council for South Lebanon, told Reuters.
According to sources familiar with the area, the level of destruction in Aita al-Shaab is reminiscent of the 2006 conflict — with at least 64 sites destroyed, Reuters reported.
Haidar also noted that most of the village's 13,500 residents fled in October, following Israel's strikes on buildings and surrounding woodlands.
At least 10 of Hezbollah's killed fighters hail from the Aita al-Shaab, and six civilians have been killed in the village, according to Reuters.
In the latest updates on the southern Lebanese-Israeli border:
An Israeli airstrike targeted and destroyed a three-story building in Kfar Kila, (Marjayoun), our correspondent reports, citing a security source. No deaths or injuries have been reported yet.
The Israeli army said it had "intercepted an aerial target" that entered Israeli territory from Lebanon, Haaretz reported. Rocket warning sirens also sounded in northern Israel, adds the Israeli newspaper.
Israeli aircraft targeted a house in the village of Shihine (Sour district) in southern Lebanon, a security source told our correspondent. Ambulances were dispatched to the scene.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a 9:30 a.m. attack on Israeli "spy equipment" in Birket Risha, opposite the Lebanese town of Boustan (Sour district).
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has been invited to participate in the NATO Summit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesperson announced, according to Haaretz. The summit will take place on July 9 in Washington, D.C., marking the 75th anniversary of the alliance.
Three human rights NGOs have again taken the Dutch government to court, claiming that a ban on supplying F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel is not being respected in practice, reports AFP.
In a landmark ruling in February, an appeal court ordered the Netherlands to stop supplying parts for these aircraft used by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
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The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said today a ship captain reported that five missiles had landed close to his vessel in the Red Sea, 150 nautical miles (172 miles) northwest of Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, according to Reuters.
UKMTO said the ship reported no damage from the incident and was heading northward.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah held talks with his Jamaa Islamiya counterpart Mohammad Takkoush, according to a Hezbollah statement. They discussed "the latest political and security developments in Lebanon and Palestine" and stressed "the importance of cooperation between resistance forces in the battle" against Israel.
Several missiles have been fired from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel, our correspondent reports, citing a security source. For the moment, no one has claimed responsibility. For its part, Haaretz reported that several warning sirens sounded in localities in northern Israel.
The calm that prevailed overnight in southern Lebanon, where tensions between Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been escalating along the border in recent days, was shattered this morning by Israeli artillery fire at around 7 a.m. on the village of Kfar Kila, in the Marjayoun district.
Yesterday evening, an Israeli air raid on Khiam (Marjayoun), which targeted a house at around 9 p.m., left two civilians injured, according to our correspondent. Members of the al-Risala Scouts Civil Defense (affiliated with the Amal Movement) took part in rescue operations before transferring the wounded to local hospitals.
Two other airstrikes targeted the localities of Odaisseh (Marjayoun) and Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil), without causing any casualties. According to local residents, Israeli artillery targeted Tallet al-Hamame, near Khiam, at around 8:30 a.m.
Bombardments continue in Gaza despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement on Sunday that the "intense" phase of the war was coming to an end.
The Civil Defense Department reported at least five deaths in Gaza City yesterday. A resident of Shujaiya, Omar Sukar, told AFP that a bombardment had surprised a crowd at a water distribution point in the Shabura area. The tanker had just arrived when the shelling began, he said.
"Terrorized residents are running through the streets (...) There are wounded and martyrs lying in the streets," said another witness.
Deadly Israeli bombardments targeted eastern Gaza City yesterday, forcing its inhabitants to flee, as fears grow that Israel's war against Hamas in the Palestinian territory could spill over into Lebanon.
Artillery and helicopter fire targeted the Shujaiya district, where fighting was pitting Israeli soldiers against Palestinian fighters, according to the Civil Defense and witnesses who reported numerous casualties. "Tens of thousands of civilians," fled this area of northern Gaza after the army asked residents to evacuate, said the Civil Defense.
Around 21 cancer patients were evacuated from Gaza to Egypt yesterday, via the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, a medical source at Al-Arich hospital in Egypt's Sinai region told AFP.
"They will be transferred to the United Arab Emirates for treatment," said the source, who requested anonymity. "This is the first evacuation," she added, since the Rafah crossing, on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, closed in early May after Israel took control of it from the Palestinian side.
⚡ Hezbollah announced late last night, after 10 p.m., the deaths of three of its members: Abbas Srour, born in 1994 and originally from Aita el-Shaab, Abdelamir Osseïli, born in 1975 and from Rchaf (both in the Bint Jbeil district). The latter lived in Mais el-Jabal, in the Marjayoun district, and was killed in an Israeli strike on Ramaya, according to our correspondent in the area. The third is Mohammad Qassem, born in 1974 and originally from Aita el-Shaab, who was killed in an Israeli drone strike on Haddatha (Bint Jbeil).
This brings the number of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon and Syria to 356, according to L'Orient Today's count.
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