Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held a situational assessment at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, where the army’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was present.

The Defense Ministry said that Gallant wanted to emphasise how Israel can combat the Hezbollah drone threat – and what exactly can be done at the soonest possible time and in the soonest possible way – and that Israel should be prepared for all scenarios.

The army chief of staff has said that Israel is ready at the maximum possible alert level on the ground and that it is looking to make what he’s calling smart decisions.

Moreover, Halevi was touring the northern border today … He was there with Israeli troops saying that Hezbollah’s drone capability is nothing new to Israel, kind of downplaying that nearly 10-minute video released by Hezbollah yesterday that showed sensitive military targets throughout northern Israel, including Iron Dome batteries.

Cyprus president says country not involved ‘in any way’ in military operations in region

The "aid pier" was supposed to be part of the solution as well, until it became a staging area for the Nuseirat massacre. So you have to thank the USA for Hezbollah no longer trusting Cyprus.

Shipping industry groups call for action after Houthis sink second vessel

There is already 'action' in the form of US and UK bombing Yemen. It's not working. What would work is fixing the cause, stop the genocide.


Israeli officials criticise demand to topple Hamas: Report

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, says on X that Israel’s attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza last week will not be forgotten.

The attack, which killed over 270 people and wounded over 700, was justified by the Israeli army as part of an operation to rescue four of its captives held by Hamas.

“The Nuseirat massacre will go down in history as one of the most appalling examples of disdain for Palestinian life in one of the most well-documented and boasted about genocides in history,” Albanese wrote.

“Justice will knock on the doors of the perpetrators and their accomplices,” she added.

UN report ‘confirmation’ of Israeli ‘crimes’ in Gaza, says Hamas

Residents of Rafah say that Israeli tanks – supported by fighter jets and drones – have moved into five neighbourhoods in the west of the city, Reuters reports. Heavy shelling and gunfire also targeted the tents of displaced families in the al-Mawasi area – located further to the west of Rafah, Reuters reports.

Up until the early hours of this morning, we could clearly hear the sound of heavy artillery in the eastern part of central Gaza.

The central area is very small and overcrowded, so anything in the refugee camps in the east can be heard clearly. Israel’s military operation there is part of its plan to establish a buffer zone that is already shrinking the Strip.

In a separate attack, the Israeli military struck the Nuseirat refugee camp with at least one drone missile, firing it into an apartment. Two young women were reportedly killed. Multiple injuries have also been reported.

Heavy artillery shelling could also be heard targeting public facilities and residential buildings in the camp, which has been relentlessly targeted during the war by land, air and sea.

In Rafah city, the Israeli military continues to push deeper into the central and western parts, destroying more residential buildings and pushing more people into internal displacement.

Women and children among Nuseirat victims

Hamas ‘preserves’ fighting force in Rafah, does not see battle as ‘decisive’: Monitors

NEW | Hamas is preserving its forces in Rafah rather than engaging the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), likely because Hamas does not believe Israel’s Rafah operation will be decisive. pic.twitter.com/nZJdb09j3c

— Critical Threats (@criticalthreats) June 20, 2024

Gaza’s death toll rises

At least 37,431 people have been killed and 85,653 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, the enclave’s Health Ministry says. Of those, 35 Palestinians were killed and 130 wounded in the past 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has detailed how Israel prevents humanitarian assistance from reaching Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, in a new report [PDF].

Here are some of the ways the UN chief’s report says Israel is obstructing humanitarian access:

• Physical obstacles – Israeli barriers, checkpoints, roadblocks and gates
• Restrictions on goods – restricting the entry of all imports, including food and fuel into Gaza
• Restrictions on humanitarian workers – International UN staff have had difficulties obtaining work visas; Palestinian UN staff denied entry to occupied East Jerusalem to get to their place of work
• Administrative barriers – such as Israel’s “building permit regime”

Israeli settlers have reportedly gathered at the eastern entrance to the occupied West Bank city of Jericho to block humanitarian aid trucks heading towards the Gaza Strip, the Wafa news agency reports.

Witnesses at the scene told Wafa that the group of settlers had gathered in the vicinity of the al-Karameh, or Allenby, bridge border crossing that links Jordan to the West Bank, while footage published by local media appears to show an Israeli car driver driving intentionally slow in front of a truck to impede its progress.

Far-right Israeli activists have intercepted trucks delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave on several occasions in recent months, attacking drivers and destroying the contents of their trucks.

The sea is both a source of livelihood for Palestinian fishermen and part of their identity.

Mostafa Abu Amera risks his life every day, rowing out on the waves off the coast of Gaza, under Israeli surveillance, to net the occasional fish on which his hungry family have come to rely.

“We are forced to go to sea and fish to feed our children,” he says. “Last week, I lost my brother-in-law who was also a fisherman.”

With Israel blocking humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, these fishermen could be a lifeline for Palestinians. But Israel’s war has effectively shut down the fishing industry, adding to the widespread hunger and starvation.

We just went inside Al-Aqsa Hospital, moving from one department to another.

We spoke to medical staff who described the outbreak of diseases as “alien”. The diseases are spreading among displaced people due to their poor living conditions, contaminated water, lack of sanitation and hygiene and the rising heat. The Israeli military destroyed the vast majority of Gaza’s sanitation facilities. It’s easy to walk along any of the roads here and see sewage.

This is all aggravating the spread of diseases, particularly infectious diseases among women, children and those who have health complications.

Inside Al-Aqsa Hospital, there is unanimous agreement that it is not a hospital any more. It’s not suitable for medical services, it’s not suitable to save lives.

The Israeli military has detained seven Palestinians during an arrest operation in the town of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.

Four members of the Hamdan family were arrested in the raids, including two men previously held in Israeli custody. Israeli forces have also stormed the city of Dura, south of Hebron and arrested a Palestinian man.

A damaged Israeli military bulldozer has also been removed from the Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas, after Palestinian fighters struck it with an explosive device.

◾️ لحظة اعتقال الاحتلال لشاب خلال الاقتحام المستمر لمدينة دورا جنوب الخليل. pic.twitter.com/TXI1RxkrYW

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) June 20, 2024

The Israeli military has arrested three Palestinians in the Hebron governorate in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.

Israeli forces stormed the city of Hebron and rearrested a university professor, just days after they had released him.

A man has also been arrested in the nearby town of Beit Ummar, while a third man has been arrested in the town of Dura. The arrested man’s family alleges that Israeli soldiers stole money from their home in Dura during the raid.

Israeli forces have also raided Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp, resulting in armed confrontations with Palestinian armed groups, Wafa reports.

Palestinian legislator rearrested in Hebron

Mohammed Saber Arab, a detained Palestinian journalist from Gaza, described multiple instances of torture, abuse and rape that he and other detainees endured at the Israeli Sde Teiman detention camp.

The 42-year-old detailed his harrowing experiences to his lawyer during a recent visit to the detention centre.

Arab, who worked as a correspondent for Al Araby TV, was arrested at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza amid a large-scale Israeli assault in March.

Arab said that detainees are kept blindfolded and handcuffed. He noted that for 50 days, he had not changed his clothes and was only allowed to change his trousers before the visit. Detainees are subjected to continuous torture, physical and sexual abuse and humiliation, leading to deaths.

He noted that conversations between detainees are prohibited, with severe beatings as punishment for violations, forcing detainees to talk to themselves and silently pray as they are deprived of religious practices.

The journalist pointed out that some detainees had their limbs amputated and bullets removed without anaesthesia.

The detainees are constantly surrounded by police dogs, and only four detainees are allowed one minute in the toilet at a time. They sleep on the ground, using their shoes as pillows, he added.

There may only be 50 captives still alive in Gaza, according to a US official and mediators in captive-release talks cited by The Wall Street Journal.

That estimate, which the WSJ said relies partly on Israeli intelligence, implies that as many as 66 captives unaccounted for in Gaza could be dead, a higher toll than Israel has publicly stated.

Hamas took about 250 captives on October 7 and has since released 109 of them, mostly in exchange deals. Seven more captives have been rescued by Israel’s military.

In December, Israeli forces admitted killing three captives despite them being shirtless and one of them holding up a white flag.

Mother of Israeli captive tells Netanyahu: ‘You chose political survival over your people’

Israeli political analyst Akiva Eldar said the statement by Israel’s army spokesman Daniel Hagari that “Hamas is an ideology” and “we cannot eliminate an ideology” has undermined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “doctrine” that Hamas could be defeated “once and for all”.

“Right now, it seems that for the first time after many years, there is an ongoing escalation between the government headed by Netanyahu and his entourage of reporters, analysts who are actually on his – unofficially – on his team, that are smearing the chief of staff,” Eldar told Al Jazeera.

“It’s a kind of apocalyptic scenario that the army spokesman – who is reporting to the chief of staff – is just undermining Netanyahu’s doctrine, which is: We do have to put an end to the Hamas government once and for all in Gaza,” Eldar said.

“What Hagari is saying is challenging Netanyahu and saying, actually … you are hallucinating.”

The Israeli prime minister’s office fuming at this and releasing a statement saying that one of the goals of the war is to eliminate Hamas’s military and political capabilities. But the army’s spokesperson has said that anyone who is saying that is, in fact, misleading the public.

This just gives you an idea of what Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are in this war, and the army on the ground saying it is actually not realistic.

Netanyahu creating ‘mythical’ rift with Biden ahead of US elections

There are 60,000 people from 28 Israeli towns and villages who have been evacuated from the border area since pretty much the start of the war and they want to go home. Netanyahu is under pressure to get them home somehow, although he is, as is quite often reported in Israel, very cautious.

Hezbollah is still treading carefully. It is still complying with the unwritten rules of engagement with Israel. The conflict is largely confined to the border region and to military targets.

Every now and then, Hezbollah raises the level to send a message. Nasrallah’s speech, a very defiant speech, yesterday was all about messages to Israelis that “we do not want war, but that doesn’t mean we are afraid of war”.

What Hezbollah has been trying to do is deter Israel from widening this conflict.

How much support Hezbollah has in Lebanon is debatable but there is no doubt it has its support base. They back its decision. But there’s also a segment of the population in this country that believes Hezbollah opening up this front is just going to cause more suffering to a country that has all but collapsed economically.

Israeli drone attack on car killed one in southern Lebanon: Report