The Lebanese group has announced three attacks on Israeli army positions and personnel since the top of the hour (15:00 GMT).

In the first, it says it launched an air attack with squadrons of drones “for the second time today”, targeting Israel’s Mishar base and the Katsavia barracks. The drones “hit their targets accurately”, according to statements form Hezbollah.

Hezbollah also claims that its fighters ambushed an Israeli army Humvee military vehicle, shooting a close-range guided missile at it and destroying it, also killing those inside. The attack took place near the Lebanon-Israel border.

Finally, the group says that it attacked the “Ruwaisat al-Qarn” site in the Shebaa Farms, occupied by Israel, with missiles, achieving direct hits.

Tensions remain high on the Lebanon-Israel border after Hezbollah pledged to step up its attacks on Israel, after the Israeli army killed one of its senior commanders in an air strike days ago.

The Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, says its soldiers are continuing to train for “combat readiness” on the northern front of the country, amid the ongoing exchange of fire with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

• “Over the past two weeks, a series of exercises were conducted at the level of military brigades, during which the forces trained to deal with different war scenarios on the northern front.”
• “The forces of the 4th Brigade arrived for the exercise after a period of fighting in the Gaza Strip, while the forces of the 226th Brigade (Northern Paratroopers Brigade) arrived after completing a period of defensive actions on the northern border.”
• “The exercise simulated combat scenarios at different levels, with an emphasis on movement in rugged areas, advancing on mountainous axes, activating fire at an increasing pace, and fighting in different areas.”
• “The forces were also trained to provide logistical and communications services in depth, evacuate wounded from the battlefield, and operate command headquarters.”

Thus far, fighting on the ground has remained limited to skirmishes on the border. But Hezbollah has been trying to challenge Israel’s air superiority over Lebanese skies.

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reports that 15 fire crews, 10 teams from the Israel Land Department and teams from the Israeli army are working to extinguish a large-scale fire in Berea, north of Safed in Upper Galilee, Israel.

These fires have broken out as Lebanon’s Hezbollah continues to launch attacks against Israeli territory, sending earlier today a barrage of 150 rockets, its largest since it began open hostilities with Israel.

Yedioth Ahronoth says that fire brigades managed to halt the spread of the fires to residential houses in Upper Galilee, but that fires are spreading quickly due to high winds in the area.

Nine other fire teams from Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority and others are also working to extinguish fires in several locations in the central Golan Heights area, especially near Katzrin, the newspaper added.

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) says a merchant vessel has reported an explosion in its close proximity, located 82 nautical miles (about 152km) northwest of Hodeidah, Yemen.

“There is no damage to the vessel, all crew are reported safe and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” it said on X, adding that authorities are investigating.

Yemen’s Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on US Navy, coalition and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November 19, the US Defense Intelligence Agency says in a new report.

“The Houthis have conducted dozens of attacks against commercial ships, and they have defied the United Nations and other international organisations that have called for an end to their maritime aggression,” the DIA said.

The report said container shipping in the Red Sea has fallen by 90 percent since December 2023, with at least 65 countries having been affected by the attacks. Moreover, at least 29 shipping and energy companies have altered their routes as a result of the attacks.

“Alternate shipping routes around Africa add about 11,000 nautical miles, 1-2 weeks of transit time, and approximately $1 million in fuel costs for each voyage,” the report added.

The Houthis say they are conducting a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel’s continuing war on Gaza.

And 193 UN nations have failed to act on the UNSC resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, increase in humanitarian aid and no invasion of Rafah. The UNSC is useless.

Following Israeli logic, there are no innocent nations in the Gaza genocide. How much extra CO2 does all this cause though...

The Consulate General of Belgium in Jerusalem says representative from the EU, Belgium, UK, Germany and Ireland met the Lawyers4Justice group to discuss their work on human rights issues

“We are increasingly concerned about the challenges and pressure Palestinian human rights defenders are facing from various sides,” it said in a post on X.

We are increasingly concerned about the challenges and pressure Palestinian human rights defenders are facing from various sides. We remain committed in our support for human rights defenders. (2/2)

— Consulate General of Belgium in Jerusalem (@BelgiumJRS) June 13, 2024

Northern Gaza suffering from starvation: Media office

The US president again blamed Hamas for the fact that a ceasefire agreement in Gaza is not yet in place during a news conference at the Group of Seven summit in Italy.

“I’ve laid out an approach that has been endorsed by the UN Security Council, by the G7, by the Israelis, and the biggest hang-up so far is Hamas refusing to sign on – even though they have submitted something similar”, he told reporters.

“Whether or not it comes to fruition remains to be seen, we’re going to continue to push. I don’t have a final answer for you.”

The German chancellor says Biden’s plan outlines how a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli captives held there can be achieved, “and the situation in the Middle East can become more peaceful,” he posted on X.

“Everyone involved should support the plan, especially Hamas – that is our demand.”

Support for armed struggle as the best means to end Israeli occupation and achieve statehood rose among Palestinians, according to an opinion poll in the last three months.

The poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) showed support for armed struggle climbed by eight percentage points to 54 percent of those surveyed in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Support for Hamas rose by six percentage points to 40 percent. Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, had 20 percent backing. The polling was carried out some eight months since the start of the Gaza war in October.

Walid Ladadweh, head of the Survey Research Unit at PSR, said that the increase in support for Hamas and armed action, while not significant compared with the previous poll, was a reaction to Israel’s destruction and killing in Gaza.

He also said the poll reflected dissatisfaction with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority led by Abbas, who has long sought to negotiate the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and rejects armed struggle.

The United States has not yet seen Israel launch a major military operation in southern Rafah, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says.

Israel’s attacks are not of the “size, scope or scale” of operations conducted elsewhere in Gaza, Miller said in a briefing for reporters. “It’s been a more limited operation.”

The comments come after weeks of strikes that have killed and wounded hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the southernmost city where hundreds of thousands are trapped.

It doesn't matter how 'major' the operation is. fact is, over a million people displaced again, Rafah continues to get bombed (including 45 dead in the tent massacre) All aid through Rafah and nearly all through Kerem Shalom has been cut off since the invasion. Hospitals are all closed in Rafah or out of supplies, there is nowhere for people to go to.

The US is full of shit, endorsing starvation of 2.3 million people. (Oh yeah that pier: US military may again temporarily dismantle pier off the coast of Gaza due to rough sea conditions not that the fraction of aid arriving there can be distributed)

Street fighting surges in Rafah in ‘close-quarters encounters’

Two Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on Rafah

US-Muslim group calls on Biden to ‘stop enabling’ starvation of Gaza children

_{Palestinian children wait for food being distributed at a camp for internally displaced people in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, on June 11}

The United Nations added the Israeli army to its “blacklist” of countries that have committed abuses against children in armed conflict.

Chris Guinness, a former spokesman for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, says it is the “ultimate list of shame”.

“It gets to the very depths of which humanity can sink. And you have to remember that some of the groups and countries on this list include Boko Haram, ISIS [ISIL], al-Qaeda, Russia, and Myanmar. This puts Israel on a list of some of the most appalling regimes and groups in the world,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I think given the totality of what we’re seeing in terms of accountability mechanisms – we’ve got the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and reports coming up from the Human Rights Council – as things build up so will the isolation and the pariah status of Israel.”

UN investigator: Israel ‘indifferent’ to international law

A Colombian military hospital would provide medical treatment to Palestinian children injured in the Israel-Hamas war under a plan announced by the country’s foreign ministry.

Colombia’s Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor Jay told reporters the children would travel with their families to Colombia for rehabilitation. She did not provide further details, including the number of children who would receive treatment, when they would arrive in Colombia or how long they would remain in the country.

Taylor Jay made the announcement during Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s trip to Sweden.

She said the government believes injured children can be treated by Colombian military doctors in part due to “the expertise” they have acquired while caring for people wounded during Colombia’s decades-long internal conflict.

The United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Germany have been receiving Palestinians in need of medical treatment as a result of the war.

Spain called on the international community to take action to end the eight-month Israeli war on Gaza.

“For too long the international community has looked the other way,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said at a news conference. “It has thought that without resolving this conflict we could live in peace and stability. What has happened during these eight months has opened the eyes of the world.”

Sanchez also demanded the release of captives held by Hamas.

On Monday, the UN Security Council overwhelmingly approved its first resolution endorsing a ceasefire plan, but neither Israel nor Hamas has fully embraced it.

The 'eyes of the world' may have been opened, yet so far most are like deer staring into headlights. Or rather bury their head in the sand hoping it will blow over?

_{Palestinian Amjad al-Qanoo, a three-year-old child whose health is deteriorating due to malnutrition, is viewed struggling to survive in Jabalia district, on June 09}

The Israeli military has bombed a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least one child, local media is reporting.

Five others were injured in the attack, with their condition currently unknown.

‘Nothing quite prepares you’: UNRWA staffer on Gaza’s decimation

This is Gaza City yesterday- remnants of a life once lived. Nothing quite prepares you, especially if you knew her before. These are people’s homes, their favorite cafes, their parks, their schools. Gone. Destruction everywhere of life, a place, a time, a culture. From the inside… pic.twitter.com/xCX19FRgP3

— Philippa Greer (@philippa_bear) June 13, 2024

UNRWA chief warns of ‘lost generation’ of children from Gaza war

Israeli military arrests 13-year-old in the occupied West Bank