Gaza Dispute
Live Reporting
Israel’s military operations would change ‘tactically, but not strategically’
The Israeli military operations would change “tactically, but absolutely not strategically”, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi says following Netanyahu’s remarks that “intense fighting in Gaza is nearly over”.
“Today the army is everywhere in the Strip, the fact that the prime minister said that in two weeks the intensity will decrease does not mean that we will stop the fighting, but the operations will change tactically, but absolutely not strategically.”
About 65 percent of Gaza’s roads damaged: UN agency
The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) says about 65 percent of Gaza’s roads have been damaged.
Approximately 1,100km (683.5 miles) of roads have been destroyed, 350km (217.5 miles) severely affected and 1,470km (913.5 miles) of roads have been moderately affected, according to satellite imagery analysis by UNOSAT.
The satellite images were collected on May 29, the agency said.
Al-Quds Brigades says its fighters attacked Israeli forces in Rafah
Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, has said its fighters bombarded Israeli soldiers with heavy-calibre mortar shells in Rafah city.
In a statement on Telegram, the group said it carried out the attack on Israeli soldiers and vehicles behind al-Masri Tower in the vicinity of al-Khatib School.
Israel’s army claims it killed a weapons expert of Hamas
The Israeli army claims it killed Muhammad Salah, who was allegedly involved in weapons development and production for Hamas, in an air attack overnight.
The army said on X that Salah also commanded several Hamas squads that produced weapons.
The statement added that the Israeli forces continued their operations in the Rafah area where they located weapons and destroyed launchers in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood.
It also said troops destroyed a number of tunnel shafts.
The statement said operations and air raids continued in other parts of Gaza.
War in Middle East on brink of expanding: EU’s Borrell
European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said the Middle East is close to seeing the conflict expanding into Lebanon, just days after the Lebanese group Hezbollah threatened Cyprus.
“The risk of this war affecting the south of Lebanon and spilling over is every day bigger,” Borrell told reporters ahead of a foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
“We are on the eve of the war expanding.”
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week threatened to attack the EU member state, warning Cyprus’ government not to open its airports and bases to Israel.
Israeli defence chief arrives in US for first time since ICC arrest warrant request
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has arrived in Washington, DC just over a month after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for a warrant for his arrest.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said his investigation had found that Gallant, along with Netanyahu, could be responsible for “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, including the use of starvation as a “method of war”.
The charges come after Gallant described Palestinians as “human animals” when he ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip on October 9.
In the past, the ICC’s pre-trial chamber has taken several months to decide whether to issue a warrant.
If a warrant is issued for Gallant, he could risk arrest if he travels to any of the 124 states that are party to the court’s Rome Statute.
But while the State of Palestine is one of the countries that recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction as a party to the Rome Statute, the United States and Israel do not.
Instead, US Republican representatives, and some Democrats, have called for the United States to bar entry to ICC officials and restrict their US-based property transactions, in protest against the court seeking warrants for Gallant and Netanyahu.
Save the Children calls for investigation into Gaza’s missing children
More on the British aid group’s statement on the 21,000 children estimated to be lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves in Gaza.
Jeremy Stoner, the group’s regional director for the Middle East, is calling for an independent investigation and accountability.
“Families are tortured by the uncertainty of the whereabouts of their loved ones. No parent should have to dig through rubble or mass graves to try and find their child’s body. No child should be alone, unprotected in a war zone. No child should be detained or held hostage,” he said.
“Children who are missing but living are vulnerable, face grave protection risks and must be found. They must be protected and reunited with their families. For the children who have been killed, their deaths must be formally marked, their families informed, burial rites respected, and accountability sought. As many have pointed out, Gaza has become a graveyard for children, with thousands of others missing, their fates unknown. There must be an independent investigation and those responsible must be held accountable. We desperately need a ceasefire to find and support the missing children who have survived, and to prevent more families from being destroyed.”
Gaza War: Up to 21,000 children missing, says aid group
Save the Children, in a new statement, said thousands of missing Palestinian children are believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of destroyed homes, detained by Israeli forces, buried in unmarked graves or lost from their families.
“It is nearly impossible to collect and verify information under the current conditions in Gaza,” the British aid group said, “but at least 17,000 children are believed to be unaccompanied and separated and approximately 4,000 children are likely missing under the rubble, with an unknown number also in mass graves”.
The group added, “Others have been forcibly disappeared, including an unknown number detained and forcibly transferred out of Gaza, their whereabouts unknown to their families amidst reports of ill-treatment and torture.”
Israeli forces carry out mass arrests, detain Palestinian legislator
Israeli forces have carried out raids across the West Bank, arresting at least 40 Palestinian men and boys near Ramallah and prominent Palestinian legislator Azzam Salhab from his home in Hebron.
The arrest of Salhab, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, comes just days after he was released from months of administrative detention in Israel, according to Palestinian media.
Houthi attack caused ‘minor injuries’ on cargo ship
The US’s Central Command issued an update on the Houthi attack on the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Transworld Navigator on Saturday.
In a post on X, CENTCOM said the suspected drone attack by the Houthis resulted in the crew reporting “minor injuries and moderate damage to the ship”, but that the vessel continued its journey.
The Greek-owned Transworld Navigator most recently docked in Malaysia and was en route to Egypt, CENTCOM said. The attack on Saturday was the fourth by the Houthis on the vessel, it added.
Earlier, the Houthis said they struck the Transworld Navigator using “an uncrewed surface boat” and that the ship “was targeted because the company that owns it violated the ban of entry into the ports of occupied Palestine”.
The Houthis say their missile and drone attacks on shipping lanes are in support of Palestinians and will only stop when the Israeli siege of Gaza is lifted. The group has launched more than 60 attacks, sunk two commercial ships, seized another and attacked dozens more since the start of the war.
Israeli forces arrest child, fire tear gas in West Bank raids
Israeli soldiers arrested a 12-year-old boy during a raid on his family home in Beit Ummar, north of the city of Hebron, shortly after midnight, the Wafa news agency reported.
In the nearby Arroub camp, an Israeli raid triggered confrontations and Israeli forces deployed tear gas, causing several people to choke, the agency added.
Two Palestinian medics have been killed in Israeli shelling on the Daraj clinic in Gaza City, the Wafa news agency reports.
An Israeli air strike killed Palestinian footballer Ahmad Abu al-Atta and his family in Gaza City, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) said.
Netanyahu’s comments on ‘partial agreement’ shows he rejects Biden proposal: Hamas
Hamas has issued a statement describing recent remarks from Benjamin Netanyahu as showing that the Israeli prime minister only wants a “partial agreement after which the war would resume” and not the proposal the Biden administration “tried to market”.
“Our insistence that any agreement include a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal was necessary to block Netanyahu’s path,” the Hamas statement added.
Netanyahu made the comments in a televised interview with Israeli media outlet Channel 14 on Sunday, where he also said that Israeli troops would be moved to Israel’s border with southern Lebanon as “the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah”.
Israeli air strike kills eight at Gaza aid centre, witnesses say
CAIRO (Reuters) - Eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday (Jun 23) in an Israeli air strike on a training college near Gaza City being used to distribute aid, Palestinian witnesses said, as Israeli tanks pushed further into the southern city of Rafah.
The strike hit part of a vocational college run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA that is now providing aid to displaced families, the witnesses said.
