Hezbollah's 'Resistance Brigades' claims first attack against Israel: Day 280 of the Gaza war

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Hezbollah claimed to have targeted a building used by Israeli soldiers in the settlement of Misgav Am (opposite Odaisseh).

The "martyr" poster for Hezbollah member Ali Hassan Nahleh. (Credit: Hezbollah Media Office)

Hezbollah announced the death of one of its members, Ali Hassan Nahleh, originally from the village of Kfar Tebnit. According to L'Orient Today's correspondent, Nahleh died of his wounds in Thursday's Israeli strike on Taybeh (Marjayoun).

Here are the latest developments in southern Lebanon:

- Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the headquarters of the infantry battalion of the 769th Eastern Brigade in the Ramim barracks (opposite Houla) with artillery shells.

- A Bangladeshi national was injured in the Israeli strike on Wazzani and taken to a local hospital.

- Israeli artillery fire with phosphorus shells targeted the outskirts of Kfar Kila and Deir Mimas (Marjayoun), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent. 

The U.N.'s highest court has announced that it will issue an opinion in a week on the legal consequences of the occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, an unprecedented case in which 52 countries have been called to testify.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, will deliver its "advisory opinion" on July 19 at 3:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. GMT), it said in a statement.

If it is not binding, it could increase the growing international legal pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.

An update on the situation in southern Lebanon:

- Israeli artillery fire targeted the village of Wazzani (Hasbaya), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent.

- Rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards Metula, a security source told L'Orient Today's correspondent. According to Haaretz, alarm sirens sounded in Metula.

The "Resistance Brigades" claimed, in their first statement since the start of the Gaza war, to have targeted, at 5:20 p.m., the site of Roueissat al-Qarn, in the contested Shebaa Farms.

This multi-faith force, founded by Hezbollah, has been participating in the front opened on Oct. 7 in southern Lebanon. Created in 1997, the day after the death of Hadi Nasrallah, one of Hassan Nasrallah's sons, it was mainly intended to replenish the ranks of the "resistance".

Primarily composed of Sunnis, but also some Christians, Druze and less religiously observant Shiites, the "Resistance Brigades" had another function of combating Sunni radicalism opposed to the Party of God, particularly in the regions where it had taken root.

Here are the latest developments on the Lebanese-Israeli border:

- At 5.20 p.m., Hezbollah claimed to have targeted the Roueissat al-Qarn site in the disputed Shebaa farms.

- Israeli artillery fire targeted the village of Wazzani (Hasbaya caza), residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent.

Here are the latest developments in southern Lebanon:

- An Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle near the junction of the village of Al-Mari - Rachaya el-Foukhar (Hasbaya), injuring at least one person.

- Israeli jets targeted the village of Tayr Harfa (Hasbaya), security sources and residents of the village told L'Orient Today's correspondent. An Israeli rocket also targeted the outskirts of Jibbain (Hasbaya).

- An Israeli strike targeted the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun).

- Israeli artillery shelling, flares and phosphorus shells targeted the outskirts of Rashaya al-Fukhar and Hibbariyeh (Hasbaya), causing fires in forests in the area.

- Al-Rissala scouts affiliated with the Amal movement claimed to have helped put out a fire that broke out in Tayr Harfa following an Israeli strike. 

Thick smoke billows after an Israeli airstrike on the village of Jibbain in southern Lebanon on July 11, 2024. (Credit: Kawnat Haju/AFP)

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it filed a complaint with the U.N. Security Council on July 3 following Israeli attacks on "the agricultural sector, farmers and herders in border villages."

The ministry said in a statement that the complaint included " official statistics on the number of fires resulting from Israel's use of white phosphorus, which amount to 683 fires."

According to the text, the area of ​​"completely burned land exceeds 2,100 dunams (210,000 square meters) over the period from Oct. 8, 2023 to mid-March this year." The area of ​​damaged forests and agricultural land amounts to 6,000 dunams (600,000 square meters).

Read the full story here.

A Dutch court on Friday rejected a request by human rights groups to order the Netherlands to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts that could end up in Israel, Reuters reported.

The case, brought by rights groups including the Dutch branch of Oxfam, follows another district court ruling in February that the Netherlands cannot send F-35 parts to Israel because it fears the jets could be involved in violating international humanitarian law in the Gaza war.

The NGOs had claimed that the Dutch state had stopped directly exporting spare parts to Israel but continued to supply fighter jet parts to the United States and other countries. These parts could then be sent to or used in aircraft destined for Israel, which should also be stopped under the previous order.

However, the District Court of The Hague said in a press release that the NGOs' interpretation of the February ruling was too broad and that the Dutch state was complying with the export ban as ordered.

Four international aid workers have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Al-Mawasi area in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Haaretz reports, citing Palestinian reports.

The strike targeted a warehouse containing humanitarian aid, the Israeli media reported.

Civil defense in Gaza says about 40 bodies were found in two Gaza City districts, according to AFP.

Hamas has proposed a "non-partisan government with national competencies to lead Gaza and the West Bank after the war," Hossam Badran, a member of the Palestinian movement's political bureau, said today.

This government must also "pave the way for general elections" and be "free from outside interference", he added.

This proposal, unprecedented since the start of the war, comes at a time when indirect negotiations are still underway between Israel and Hamas, under the aegis of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, to halt the fighting in Gaza and free the hostages held there.

After 10 a.m., Hezbollah claimed responsibility for two operations against Israeli positions:

- The party claims to have launched "guided missiles" against "espionage and reconnaissance equipment" installed in the Israeli town of Metula. The equipment was "directly hit and destroyed," the statement said.

- A "group of soldiers" carrying out "fortification and construction work" near the Israeli position of "Hanita", facing the Lebanese village of Labbouneh (Sour district) was targeted by "rocket-propelled grenades", Hezbollah added in a second statement.

However, the early morning was marked by an incident involving Lebanese army troops.

The mayor of the border village of Wazzani (Hasbaya district), told L'Orient Le-Jour that a Lebanese army vehicle deployed in the area came under machine-gun fire at around 7 a.m.. He added that none of the soldiers were injured. The incident was confirmed to us by the army.

In South Lebanon, the night was relatively less turbulent than in recent days, with only one Israeli bombardment recorded, according to security sources contacted by our correspondent.

- The Israeli air force carried out a raid on the el-Harika neighborhood in Kfar Kila (Marjayoun district), but the missile sent in failed to explode.

- Rescue workers from the Civil Defense and al-Rissala Scouts Association, affiliated with the Amal Movement, responded to an earlier air strike on the village of Taybeh (Marjayoun district). In a statement, they reported that several wounded had been transferred to local hospitals.

Israeli military releases name of reservist killed in Hezbollah drone attack:

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced today that Master Sgt. (res.) Valeri Chefonov, who was critically wounded in a drone attack in northern Israel on Thursday, died of his wounds.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, saying that it targeted an Israeli artillery command and control base near Kibbutz Kabri in the Western Galilee.

Gaza's Health Ministry has reported that 32 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes and transferred to hospitals in the enclave since yesterday.

In a short statement, the ministry said that the majority of these "martyrs" were children and women. Hamas government media reported that "more than 70 airstrikes" had been recorded in several areas of the Gaza Strip, including neighborhoods in Gaza City, the central Nusseirat camp, Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah.

The Israeli army also said yesterday that it was continuing its operations in the Rafah region (south) bordering Egypt, claiming that its troops had "eliminated dozens of terrorists", including Hassan Abou Kouik, described as a Hamas security chief who had "carried out numerous terrorist attacks" against Israel.

Four dead, including a child, were taken to Rafah's Nasser Hospital after Israeli raids on the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in the west of the city, according to the hospital's management.

In central Gaza, four people were also killed in an Israeli strike on the Nusseirat refugee camp, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

On the ground in Gaza, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Shujaiya district, the enclave's Civil Defense yesterday reported the discovery under the rubble of "around 60 martyrs." In a statement, Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said that "85% of the buildings (in the district) are now uninhabitable," not to mention all the infrastructure that has been "demolished."

On Wednesday, the Israeli army had called on all residents to evacuate central Gaza, some 300,000 to 350,000 people, according to the U.N.. Yesterday, it announced that it was continuing its operation in central Gaza City against fighters "in the headquarters of UNRWA," the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. In Gaza City, clashes were also taking place in the south and shelling in the west, according to the army and AFP journalists.

Hamas announced a concession on Sunday, saying it would agree to negotiate the release of hostages in the absence of a permanent cease-fire with Israel, which it had until now always demanded.

In the tenth month of war between Israel and Hamas, new talks on which U.S. President Joe Biden reported "progress" were held yesterday in Qatar.

"These are difficult, complex issues. There are still gaps to be filled. We are making progress. The trend is positive, and I am determined to conclude this agreement and put an end to this war, which should end now," Joe Biden said on Friday at a press conference following the NATO summit.

Make sure to read the Morning Brief to catch up on yesterday's events and today's upcoming ones.

Good morning! Thank you for joining us for today's coverage of the Gaza war and its regional impacts.