Israel closes land border crossings with Jordan following Allenby crossing attack: Day 338 of the Gaza war

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The Ministry of Health stated that "three people with minor injuries" were reported in the Israeli attack on Majdel Selm, "in the homes located near the targeted area." This refers to the previously reported strike on Kherbet Selm. The three injured individuals were treated in the emergency room at Tebnine Governmental Hospital.

Latest from southern Lebanon according to residents of the area:

* The Israeli army struck a house in the village of Khirbit Silim in the Bint Jbeil district. The house was reportedly empty but injuries took place for people located around the house that was targeted.

* The Israeli army shelled the villages of Deir Mimas and Kfar Kila in the Marjayoun district.

* The village of Kfar Shuba (Hasbaya) was also shelled by the Israeli army.

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, is starting a multi-day trip to the Middle East on Sunday to advocate for a cease-fire. He will stop in Egypt and Lebanon but not in Israel, Haaretz reports, citing the German Press Agency (DPA).

Borrell plans to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi in Cairo on Monday and visit the Rafah border crossing, which leads to the Gaza Strip, according to the EU’s foreign service office in Brussels. A meeting with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States is high on the agenda, his office stated.

⚡ The Qatar Red Crescent and UNRWA (the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees) have signed a $4.5 million agreement to assist more than 4,400 workers and patients from Gaza stranded in the occupied West Bank, Reuters reports.

Latest from southern Lebanon according to residents:

* The Israeli army struck the village of Kfar Kila in the Marjayoun district.

* The village of Maroun al-Ras in the Bint jbeil district was struck with four artillery shots.

The Israeli army announced "it had killed the commander of Hamas's Khan Younis Brigade, responsible for rockets, Raaf Omar Salman Abu Shaab," according to Haaretz. The army stated that the man was in charge of launching rocket barrages on Israel since the beginning of the war.

The Israeli army estimates that around 7,000 Hezbollah launch pads have been destroyed since the Israeli "preventive" strike on Aug. 25. This "major operation is part of an ongoing strategy aimed at reducing the military capabilities of the Lebanese group," reported Israeli online media outlet i24 News.

According to the Israeli army, as cited by the media, nearly one-fifth of Hezbollah's short-range rockets have been neutralized. Contrary to earlier assessments that indicated an arsenal of 180,000 projectiles, Israeli intelligence now estimates that, before the Aug. 25 strike, Hezbollah only had 40,000 short-range rockets and 5,000 medium-range rockets.

As for the ground threat, estimates suggest that only a few hundred Hezbollah fighters remain along the border, down from over 2,400 before Oct. 7, 2023.

Israeli Finance Minister, the extremist Bezalel Smotrich, said Saturday on Israeli media Channel 12 that "war should be waged on Lebanon to drive the population back" from northern Israel.

"Any agreement is worth no more than the paper it is written on," added the minister, whose comments were reported by Middle East Observer.

The U.S. military is preparing for a potential breakdown in cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, fearing that their failure could trigger a broader regional conflict. Speaking to the Financial Times, General CQ Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned about the escalating risks if negotiations falter.

“I’m thinking about… [if] negotiations stall or completely fail, the impact on tensions in the region, and the steps we need to take to prepare for that change,” General Brown said as he was heading to a meeting of the Ukraine contact group in Germany.

Brown stated that the U.S. military is closely evaluating how major regional players might react to the failure of cease-fire discussions. “It’s about whether they escalate their activities, which could lead to miscalculations and a broader extension of the conflict,” he added, highlighting the risk of a more significant escalation in case of missteps.

The Health Ministry of the Gaza Strip reported that 40,972 Palestinians have been killed and 94,761 injured since Oct. 7, according to Reuters.

Hezbollah announced that at 2:25 p.m. they attacked a group of Israeli soldiers in the area of "Abou Dajaj Hills" located facing the Lebanese village of Ramyeh in the Bint Jbeil district with artillery shots.

Latest from southern Lebanon:

* Hezbollah announced that in retaliation to yesterday's strike on the village of Froun (Bint Jbeil), they attacked with explosive drones a group of Israeli soldiers at the maritime Israeli position of "Ras al-Naqoura" located close to the Lebanese village of Naqoura (Sour).

* The Israeli army struck the area of Kasarat al-Oroush located in the mountains of Jabal al-Rayhan (Saida), residents of the area told L'Orient-Le Jour.

⚡ Israel has closed its land border crossings with Jordan following the deadly attack at the Allenby crossing, according to Israel's Airports Authority as reported by Reuters.

Following the deadly attack on Sunday at the Israeli-Jordanian border, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel is "surrounded by a murderous ideology led by the Iranian axis of evil," according to Haaretz.

"In recent days, despicable terrorists have cold-bloodedly murdered six of our hostages and three Israeli police officers. The killers make no distinction between us; they want to kill us all, to the last one — right and left, secular and religious, Jews and non-Jews," he denounced.

New update on the situation in South Lebanon:

* Hezbollah announced it destroyed surveillance equipment at 9:30 a.m. on the Israeli position in Malikiya, across from the Lebanese town of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil), using an explosive drone.

* The party also reported attacking the Israeli position at Roueissat el-Alam in the contested Kfar Shuba hills at 12:30 p.m.

Efforts by President Joe Biden over recent months to secure a cease-fire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas have once again faced setbacks, putting the deal on life support, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

U.S. officials said they are reassessing the next steps while initially hoping to present both parties with a "take-it-or-leave-it" proposal in the coming days. 

The latest obstacle — a sudden new demand from Hamas regarding the prisoners Israel would release — highlights the frustrating and often untenable process that has concerned senior U.S. officials, including President Biden, for nine months.

Biden's chances of ending the Gaza conflict and securing the release of the remaining hostages before leaving office seem increasingly slim, raising the likelihood that he will finish his presidency without resolving the conflict that has marred the last year of his term and threatens to impact his legacy.

⚡ Three Israelis were killed on Sunday in a shooting attack at one of the crossing points between the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank and Jordan, according to Israeli security forces and rescue services, reports AFP.

The suspected attacker was killed, the army and police said, without providing details on his identity. The attack occurred at the Allenby crossing, used for both travelers and goods, between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, according to the same sources.

Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad: "Any aggression the enemy commits against our villages, people and nation will be met with an equal price."

Fayyad stated from the village of Dweir (Nabatieh) on the 40th day since the passing of a military expert close to Hezbollah Amin Hoteit that "the resistance is no longer a small group of enthusiastic youth acting as the eye that stands up to the needle. It is no longer a resistance of a single party standing alone while the entire West supports the usurping entity. The resistance has now become a regional axis that includes nations, resistances, vast human and logistical capabilities, and it controls the most important maritime passages in the world."

Overnight strikes in South Lebanon:

- At 1:00 a.m., rockets were fired from the south towards Israeli positions. Intercepted rockets exploded in the skies over the towns of Markaba, Rubb Thalathin and Khiam in the Marjayoun district.

- Israeli warplanes bombed Aita al-Shaab, Maroun al-Ras and Yaroun in the Bint Jbeil district.

- Israeli phosphorus artillery shelling targeted the villages of Khiam and Deir Mimas in the Marjayoun district.

-After 1:30 a.m.: Hezbollah announced their first attack of the day to retaliate against the attack that targeted medical teams in the town of Froun and led to the killing and injury of civil defense personnel. Hezbollah said they attacked the area of Kiryat Shmona with “a barrage of Falaq rockets.”

- After 2:00 a.m.: Israeli artillery shelled the town of Tallouseh and the Wadi al-Salouqi in the Marjayoun district.

- After 3:00 a.m.: Hezbollah announced that they fired again at the Israeli area of Kiryat Shmona (facing the Lebanese village of Houla) “with heavy rocket fire.”

Last nights attacks in southern Lebanon according to security sources:

- At 9:00 p.m., the Amal Movement mourned the killing of one of their members Mohammad Habib Hashem from the village of Burj Qalaway and Qassem Adel Bazzi from the village of Froun in the Sour district.

- At 10:00 p.m., a statement was issued by the General Directorate of Civil Defense - Islamic Health Authority affiliated with Hezbollah condemning the killing of three Civil Defense volunteers in an Israeli drone strike on the village of Froun yesterday.

- At midnight, the Israeli army fired heavy machine gun fire from the Israeli "Abbad position" towards the town of Houla in the Marjayoun district.

In the occupied West Bank, 26-year-old activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed on Friday during a protest in Beita against the expansion of Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law. Washington called her death "tragic," while Ankara condemned what it termed a "barbaric intervention by Israel."

Her family referenced a video they claim shows that the bullet that killed the activist "came from an Israeli army shooter."

The Israeli military acknowledged it had opened fire in the Beita area and stated it is "examining reports that a foreign national was killed."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Saturday that "the only measure" capable of halting "Israeli state terrorism" is "an alliance of Islamic countries."

In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz remarked that Erdogan continues to "throw the Turkish people into the fire of hatred and violence for the sake of his Hamas friends."

CIA Director Bill Burns noted that he is working "hard" with Qatari and Egyptian mediators to refine the framework for a cease-fire. "We will present a more detailed proposal (for a truce agreement), hopefully in the coming days," he said.

Despite multiple efforts by international mediators — the U.S., Qatar and Egypt — and growing pressure for a cease-fire and the release of Israeli hostages, both sides remain unyielding, blaming each other for obstructing any potential agreement.

In Gaza, the human toll is expected to exceed 41,000 deaths. 

Thousands of people protested Saturday evening in Israel, particularly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, demanding a deal to secure the release of the hostages. According to AFP journalists, protesters, including former hostages and families of those still held captive, chanted anti-government slogans.

The war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas entered its 12th month yesterday, with no sign of a respite from the deadly Israeli bombings.

Following the death of an American-Turkish activist in the occupied West Bank, her family accused the Israeli army of killing her by gunfire and called for an "independent investigation."

"Eleven months. Enough. No one can bear this anymore (...) Cease-fire now!" wrote Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on X.

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