Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the Gaza war! Make sure to tune in tomorrow for all the latest updates.
Latest developments in South Lebanon:
- The recent Israeli strike on Taybeh (Marjayoun district) left at least three people injured, locals report to our correspondent.
- Hezbollah claims responsibility for an attack carried out at 7:45 p.m. on the Israeli site of Ramtha, in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills.
- The party claimed responsibility for another attack carried out at the same time at the Israeli site of Zebdine, in the disputed Shebaa Farms.
The Israeli army's Arabic-speaking spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on X that "warplanes recently raided a series of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah military buildings in Yarin (Sour district) and Ramiyeh (Bint Jbeil district), and terrorist structures in Jibbayn and Tayr Harfa (Sour district)".
In another posting on X, he quoted Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi on the front with Lebanon. "When your enemy is in a difficult situation, don't retreat, but increase his difficulties. That's what we do. We make his situation more delicate in order to increase the chances of finding better conditions for the return of displaced persons, which is extremely important," he asserted.
Latest developments in South Lebanon:
- Israeli aircraft attacked the area around Taybeh (Marjayoun district) with three missiles, according to local residents.
- Missiles were fired from South Lebanon towards the Rouaissat el-Alm sites in the disputed Shebaa and Kfar Shuba heights, according to a security source.
Anti-tank missiles were fired at Shtoula, in northern Israel, Haaretz reports. The municipality reports that one house was damaged, according to the newspaper. Hezbollah had earlier claimed responsibility for an attack on the area.
The latest developments in South Lebanon:
- Hezbollah claimed to have targeted "a deployment of enemy soldiers" near the Zar'it barracks, which faces the Lebanese locality of Marwahin (Sour district), with a Burkan missile at 5:54 pm.
- The party also declared that in response to "Israeli enemy attacks on southern villages, in particular those of Yarin and Tayr Harfa", it had targeted "two buildings used by enemy soldiers" in the Israeli site of Misgav Am, which faces Odaisseh (Marjayoun district).
⚡ Israel demands to retain control of an area of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt conquered in early May to prevent "arms smuggling" to Hamas from Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said according to AFP.
This demand to retain the "Philadelphia corridor and the Rafah crossing" is one of the "four principles" laid down by Israel as part of the negotiations for a cease-fire agreement in Gaza and the release of the hostages, said Netanyahu, while Hamas is demanding that the Israeli army evacuate the area.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that operations at a pier designed to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza will end soon, with the focus shifting from aid delivery to distribution within the war-torn region.
"The real issue right now is not about getting aid into Gaza, it's about getting aid around Gaza effectively," he told reporters.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a missile attack on "two buildings used by Israeli soldiers" in Shtoula, an Israeli zone opposite Aita al-Shaab. The party claims to have caused deaths and injuries in this attack, carried out "in retaliation for the attacks on Jibbayn and Ramiyeh."
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called for a state inquiry into failings around the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, and said its subjects should include Gallant himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Gallant made the comments at a graduation ceremony for new military officers, also attended by Netanyahu. The crowd at the ceremony, made up of families of new officers, cheered when Gallant made his comment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he remained committed to the Gaza cease-fire framework being negotiated, and accused Hamas of making demands that contradict it.
"I am committed to the framework deal for freeing our hostages, but the Hamas murderers are sticking to demands that contradict the framework, that endanger Israel," Netanyahu said in a speech.
The G7 heads of diplomacy have condemned the Israeli government's announcement that it intends to legalize five settlement outposts and seize 1,270 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank. The foreign ministers of the "Group of 7" - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States - said they "join the United Nations and the European Union in condemning Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's announcement that five outposts are to be legalized in the West Bank."
"We also reject the Israeli government's decision to seize 1,270 hectares of land in the West Bank - the largest land seizure since the Oslo Accords [in 1993] - and the decision to expand existing settlements in the occupied West Bank by authorizing 5,295 new housing units and three new settlements," they added in a statement transmitted by the Italian presidency of the G7.
The United States has announced new sanctions targeting Israeli extremists accused of stirring up violence in the occupied West Bank, reports AFP.
"Today, we are imposing sanctions on three individuals and five Israeli entities linked to acts of violence against civilians in the West Bank," the State Department said in a statement, specifying in particular that it had targeted the Lehava organization.
Around 60 bodies have been discovered under the rubble of buildings in Shujaya, a district of Gaza from which the Israeli army announced its withdrawal last night after a two-week military offensive, according to the Gaza Strip's Civil Defense. These people were exhumed from the rubble in this eastern district of Gaza City, which has become a "disaster zone," according to a statement by Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.
"Eighty-five percent of the buildings (in the district) are now uninhabitable," he said, not counting all the infrastructure that has been "demolished".
For its part, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for its fourth attack of the day, against "surveillance equipment" at the "Hadab Yarin" site, opposite the Lebanese village of Yarin (Sour district).
The situation in South Lebanon:
- A house in Yarin (Sour district) was targeted by an Israeli ground-to-ground guided missile and completely destroyed. A fire broke out in the area.
- Israeli fighter jets targeted a house in the center of Tayr Harfa (Sour district), destroying it, according to local residents. No casualties were reported.
- Israeli aircraft also hit the outskirts of Jibbayn (Sour district).
- Israeli artillery targeted Ramaya and Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil), according to local residents.
⚡ The mediating countries have yet to provide "any new information" regarding cease-fire negotiations in Gaza, Hamas reported in a statement quoted by AFP. The movement also accused Israel of "buying time" to derail the current round of negotiations.
Hamas added, "The occupation is continuing its policy of procrastination to gain time and derail this round of negotiations, as it has done in previous rounds."
Their comments come as U.S.-backed mediators Qatar and Egypt intensified their efforts this week to reach a cease-fire agreement to end the nine-month war in Gaza and free Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as well as many Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Here is the latest on the situation in southern Lebanon:
- Artillery and phosphorous bombardment targeted the southern and eastern outskirts of the town of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), the outskirts of Houla (Marjeyoun district), Wadi al-Slouqi (Bint Jbeil), and the outskirts of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil), according to eyewitnesses.
- The explosion of a number of interceptor missiles in the airspace of Mais al-Jabal and the surrounding areas was heard and seen by residents.
- Members of the Islamic Risala Scouts Association removed the rubble and opened up roads following yesterday’s on the town of Tayr Harfa (Sour), the group said in a statement.
- Repetitive Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Naqoura, in conjunction with artillery shelling on the outskirts of Baraasheet (Nabatieh), according to residents.
- Israeli artillery fire also targeted the outskirts of Jibain (Sour)
- Hezbollah said in a statement that it launched a squadron of assault drones on the new headquarters of the artillery battalion of the 146th Division south of Kabri, which is located 8 km inside the coast of Israel, targeting the command places and positions of crews and officers of the fire management and artillery, directly hitting them and causing deaths and injuries.
- At 11:21 a.m., Hezbollah targeted the newly developed technical equipment at the Al-Malkia site, which faces Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, directly hitting it.
- At 11:55 a.m., Hezbollah targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Hanita site with missile weapons, which faces Alma al-Shaab (Sour) in South Lebanon, directly hitting it.
- Hezbollah also claimed a 1:05 p.m. attack that targeted Israeli surveillance equipment at the Hadab Boustan site, adjacent to the southern Lebanese village of Boustan (Sour).
The Gaza Health Ministry announced a new death toll of 38,345 in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war with Israel, which has entered its tenth month.
At least 50 people have been killed in the past 24 hours, it said in a statement, adding that 88,295 people had been injured in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the conflict on Oct. 7.
After the Israeli army withdrew from the Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, residents began returning to the area, walking through rubble in a devastated landscape, according to AFPTV. "We found immense destruction that defies description," said Mohamad Nairi, a displaced Palestinian. "All the houses have been demolished," he told AFP.
At least six bodies were found in the ruins of the neighborhood, the Gazan Health Ministry said Thursday.
The Israeli army announced that it was continuing its operation in the center of Gaza City against fighters "integrated into the headquarters of UNRWA," the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. It accused Hamas of using it "as a base to launch attacks."
Clashes also took place in Tal al-Hawa, in the south of Gaza City, and in Sabra.
The U.S. will restart its shipments of 500-pound bombs to Israel after a freeze on the transfers in May, according to the Washington Post.
According to the American daily, the decision to send the around 1,700 bombs came after a significant pressure campaign by Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – and pro-Israel lobby groups.
According to a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, the 500-pound bombs were never really an issue but "because of how these shipments are put together, other munitions may sometimes be co-mingled. That’s what happened here with the 500-lb bombs, since our main concern had been and remains the potential use of 2,000-lb bombs in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza."
It is not clear when the bombs will be transferred.
According to Janet Abou-Elias, a research fellow at the Center for International Policy, due to the high density of Gaza's populated areas, "the difference in the destructive impact between a 500-pound and a 2,000-pound bomb is negligible, both causing immense destruction and civilian casualties."
The transfer of the 2,000-pound bombs remains frozen and "under review."
An update on the situation in southern Lebanon last night and this morning:
- Around 9 p.m., Hezbollah announced that it had struck "a building in which Israeli soldiers were deployed" in Shtula, opposite the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil). The party said it had carried out this strike in response to the Israeli bombings of the day on Tayr Harfa and Taybeh.
- At 10:00 p.m., Hezbollah fighters launched an "airstrike, with a squadron of booby-trapped drones, on the headquarters of the artillery battalion of the 210th unit, in the Yarden barracks," located north of Lake Tiberias, about twenty kilometers from the border. This strike, launched in response to the strike "in Saboura," where a former bodyguard of the party leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated in a drone strike, caused "deaths and injuries."
- The party also said that at 10:20 p.m. it struck with missiles Israeli soldiers who were located between the sites of "Ramtha and Samaqa," in the disputed heights of Kfar Shouba.
- At 10:30 p.m., the Israeli air force bombed a house in Odaisseh and a neighborhood in Khiam (Marjayoun). A fighter plane also struck Ramieh (Bint Jbeil).
- At 11 p.m., machine gun fire targeted the outskirts of Wazzani.
- Around midnight, artillery fire targeted Alma al-Shaab (Tyre).
In a meeting yesterday in Jerusalem with the White House coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to a cease-fire agreement "as long as Israel's red lines are respected."
A Hamas official, Hossam Badran, told AFP that the "intensification" of Israeli "massacres" in the Gaza Strip had the effect of strengthening the demands of the Islamist movement.
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal and witnesses said Israeli forces had withdrawn from Shujaiya. The area had become "a ghost town," Bassal said.
AFP footage yesterday showed residents of Shujaiya walking through rubble in a devastated landscape.
After months of unsuccessful diplomatic efforts, new talks are due to begin in Qatar to try to move towards a cease-fire and the release of hostages taken during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which triggered the war.
An Israeli delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea arrived in Doha yesterday, according to a source close to the negotiations. CIA Director William Burns was also expected.
The Israeli army announced last night that it had "completed" its operations launched on June 27 in Shujaiya, a neighborhood in the east of Gaza City that has been the scene of violent fighting since that date.
"The soldiers ... have completed their mission, which lasted about two weeks, in the area of Shujaiya," according to a military statement. The offensive allowed the dismantling of "eight tunnels" and the elimination of "dozens of terrorists" as well as the destruction of "combat bases and booby-trapped buildings."
The offensive on Shujaiya, in which soldiers from elite units were engaged on the ground, was extended on Monday to the neighborhoods of the center of Gaza City. The Israeli army had called yesterday on all residents to evacuate the city of Gaza, the main city of the besieged Palestinian territory.
Thousands of leaflets calling on "all people" to evacuate via "safe corridors" have been dropped over the northern Gaza City. The leaflets warn that the already partly destroyed city, where the U.N. has said there were 300,000 to 350,000 people, remains "a dangerous combat zone."
This new evacuation order "will only add to the mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced numerous times," warned yesterday the spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the U.N. Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric.
Be sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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