Deadly Israeli strikes across Gaza continue as aid deliveries grind to a halt

The New Arab's liveblog on the Israel-Gaza war has concluded for today. We will be back tomorrow at 8:00 BST.

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Israel on Monday reprimanded the ambassador of Slovenia over her country's recognition of a Palestinian state.

Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement that during a conversation with the Slovenian ambassador it was emphasized that the statehood recognition "does not promote peace, it encourages the Hamas terrorist organization, and it makes it difficult to promote a deal for the release of the hostages." 

(Reuters)

The Pentagon on Monday sought to dispel what it said were false perceptions that Israel staged part of its hostage rescue operations on the US military's floating pier off Gaza, saying that was not true and no US personnel were involved.

Still, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder acknowledged there were Israeli helicopter operations "near" the pier, which was announced by US President Joe Biden as a way to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

"It was near but I think it's incidental. Again, the pier, the equipment, the personnel all supporting that humanitarian effort had nothing to do with the IDF rescue operation," Ryder said, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on Monday to push for a much awaited Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Blinken landed in Tel Aviv and immediately headed to Jerusalem to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an AFP journalist travelling with him said.

The top diplomat flew from Cairo where he had been holding meetings with the Egyptian president on his eighth visit to the region since the outbreak of war in October.

[Featured file image: GETTY]

The United Nations Security Council will vote later on Monday on US-drafted resolution backing a proposal - outlined by President Joe Biden - for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The US finalized its text on Sunday after six days of negotiations among the 15-member council. It was not immediately clear whether veto-powers Russia and China would allow the adoption of the draft.

A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, China or Russia to pass.

Israel's military said one of its drones was shot down over Lebanon by a surface-to-air missile on Monday.

"A surface-to-air missile was launched toward an Israeli Air Force UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that was operating in Lebanese airspace. As a result, the UAV was damaged and fell in Lebanese territory," the military said.

The statement did not mention Hezbollah, but the Lebanese group said it "ambushed a Hormuz 900 drone armed with missiles" which was hit directly and shot down.

Last week, the Iran-aligned Lebanese group announced it was using surface-to-air missiles against Israeli attacks for the first time, prompting speculation about its abilities to target Israel's air force.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Monday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Gaza ceasefire comments were "biased to Israel" and that his stance is a real obstacle to reaching an agreement.

"Blinken's speech during his visit to Egypt is an example of bias to Israel and it offers an American cover to the holocaust conducted by the occupation in Gaza," he said.

(Reuters)

Lebanon's Hezbollah militia said it had attacked an Israeli military post in the occupied Golan Heights with a "squadron of drones" on Monday.

In a statement, the group said it had injured Israeli soldiers and caused part of the outpost to catch fire.

The Shia Muslim group have been waging attacks against Israel since 8 October, following the outbreak of war in Gaza.

(Reuters)

Israel has not been invited to a Gaza aid conference in Jordan, according to the Times of Israel citing an official from the Israeli foreign ministry. 

The conference that is set to be held near the dead sea on Tuesday, and will host representatives from Jordan, Egypt, the UN and aid organisations. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that leaders in the Middle East should press Hamas to agree to the US proposal for a Gaza truce with Israel.

"My message to governments throughout the region... if you want a ceasefire, press Hamas to say yes," he told reporters in Cairo, his first stop on a regional tour.

"I believe strongly... that the overwhelming majority of people, whether they're in Israel, the West Bank, in Gaza... actually want to believe in a future where Israelis and Palestinians would live in peace and security."

The UN's Palestine Refugee Agency UNRWA has said that over half of all buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed, citing the UN's Satellite Centre.

"Clearing the rubble will take years. Healing from the psychological trauma of this war will take even longer," UNRWA said in a post on X.

"This suffering must come to an end," it added.

The destruction in #Gaza is indescribable. More than half of all buildings have been destroyed, according to @UNOSAT.

Clearing the rubble will take years. Healing from the psychological trauma of this war will take even longer.

This suffering must come to an end. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/cRQoYo8ZZQ

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 10, 2024

Lebanon's Shia Muslim Hezbollah group said it attacked an Israeli spy site in the occupied Shebaa Farms on Monday, in response to Israeli attacks on southern villages.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the group said it caused "a direct hit and the destruction of the targeted equipment".

Meanwhile, Israeli left-leaning newspaper Haaretz reported an outbreak of fire in the Israeli kibbutz of Menara on the Lebanese frontier.

Last week, huge fires broke out in northern Israel after Hezbollah fired a salvo of rockets which caused major damage and prompted fears of an outright conflict between the two warring parties.

Since October, nearly 450 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli attacks, the majority of whom were Hezbollah members, though civilians have been struck too.

The Biden administration is reportedly considering a direct deal with Hamas over the fate of several captives in Gaza that would exclude Israel, according to a report.

Officials have been discussing alternative options to rescue the hostages in Gaza if the current ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas fail to cross the line, US news outlet NCB News reported on Monday.

Citing current and former senior US officials, the report said that discussions with Hamas would be conducted through Qatari mediators and and would not include Israel.

The US is particularly concerned over the fate of five American-Israeli dual nationals, who Hamas is believed to have taken during the 7 October attack on southern Israel.

The report noted that the officials did not know what the US would offer to Hamas in exchange for the captives release.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on Monday issued an urgent plea for oxygen as medical supplies reach critically low levels in the besieged enclave.

In a statement, it said that the "only oxygen station" in Gaza is threatened with "completely stopping" and is risking the lives of dozens of patients.

Health services are in need of diesel fuel to operate the generators which are powering refrigerators and the oxygen stations. Israel's months-long blockade on the Strip means power supplies have been reduced to generators but there are major shortages of fuel.
 

The UK's Liberal Democrat party has included in its election manifesto an "immediate" recognition of the State of Palestine if it won office in the upcoming vote, placing it apart from left-wing Labour's stance.

In its manifesto released on Monday, the third-largest UK political party's foreign policy included advocating for "an immediate bilateral ceasefire" in the Gaza war and "recognising that there is no military solution" to remove Palestinian group Hamas from Gaza.

The manifesto states the party would lead "a diplomatic push towards a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine based on 1967 borders, to deliver the security and dignity that Israelis and Palestinians deserve".

It would also officially recognise "the independent state of Palestine with immediate effect".

The United States announced Sunday it has requested a UN Security Council vote on its draft resolution backing a plan for an "immediate ceasefire with the release of hostages" between Israel and Hamas.

Diplomatic sources said the vote is planned for Monday, but has not yet been confirmed by South Korea, which holds the Security Council presidency for the month of June.

"Today, the United States called for the Security Council to move towards a vote... supporting the proposal on the table," said Nate Evans, spokesman for the US delegation, without specifying a vote date.

"Council members should not let this opportunity pass by and must speak with one voice in support of this deal," Evans said.

The United States, a staunch ally of Israel, has been widely criticized for having blocked several UN draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

[Featured image: Getty]

The health ministry in Gaza said Monday that at least 37,124 people have been killed in the territory during more than eight months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The toll includes at least 40 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 84,712 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7

The Israeli army have been conducting intense raids on Palestinian towns across the occupied West Bank on Monday, including al-Fara'a refugee camp and Deheisha refugee camp, where two Palestinians, including a child, were reportedly killed.

 A 15-year-old boy died in al Fara'a after receiving gun shot wounds on Monday, medical sources told Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israeli forces raiding the suburb of Dhanaba, east of Tulkarm city on Monday shot a 21 year old Palestinian man after snipers took to roofs of the neighbourhood and raided homes.

The West Bank has been embroiled in near daily violent clashes between Israeli forces and local militia groups since the start of the Gaza war in October, as Israel has sought to crackdown on Palestinian rights in the occupied territory.

A total of 203 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the start of this year, according to data from OCHA.

A senior Hamas official urged the United States on Monday to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza, ahead of the planned visit on Monday by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to push forward ceasefire efforts.

Blinken is set to visit Egypt and Israel on Monday. He also aims to ensure the war does not expand into Lebanon.

"We call upon the US administration to put pressure on the occupation to stop the war on Gaza and the Hamas movement is ready to deal positively with any initiative that secures an end to the war," senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Following a week of heightened tensions along the Lebanon-Israel frontier, Hezbollah announced late on Sunday that its forces intercepted an Israeli jet over Lebanese airspace with surface-to-air missiles.

The statement said that the jet was forced to retreat. This followed a series of strikes by the Iran-backed group against northern Israeli military sites earlier in the day including the Ramtha military point and Za’oura in the occupied Golan Heights, a separate statement in Al-Ahed said. 

Hezbollah said that its strikes came in response to Israel's targeting over the weekend of the southern villages of Khiam, Markaba and Aitaroun which killed three people. Hezbollah also said that it targeted Israeli barracks and spy equipment in Birkat Risha, Udem and Ruwaisat al-Alam with artillery shells and guided missiles.

The director of the World Food Program said on Sunday the program has "paused" its distribution of humanitarian aid from an American-built pier off Gaza, saying she was "concerned about the safety of our people" after what had been one of the deadliest days of the war there.

Saturday saw both an Israeli military assault that freed four hostages but left 274 Palestinians and one Israeli commando dead, and, Cindy McCain said, two of WFP's warehouses in Gaza had been "rocketed" and a staffer injured.

Sunday's UN announcement of the pause appears the latest setback for the US sea route, set up to try to bring more aid to Gaza's starving people.

The US Agency for International Development described the pause as a step to allow for a security review by the humanitarian community in Gaza. USAID works with the World Food Program and their humanitarian partners in Gaza to distribute food and other aid coming from the US-operated pier.

An American cargo plane dropped more than 10 metric tons of rations into northern Gaza on Sunday, the US military said, after a suspension of such deliveries due to Israeli operations in the area.

Gaza's population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance after eight months of devastating conflict, and the United States turned to delivering it by air and sea as Israel delayed the entry of aid via land.

The air drop provided "life-saving humanitarian assistance in northern Gaza," the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

"To date the US has airdropped more than 1,050 metric tons of humanitarian assistance" in addition to aid delivered via a temporary pier attached to the Gaza coast, it said.

[Image credit: GETTY]

Yemen's Houthi damaged two commercial vessels in missile attacks in the Gulf of Aden in the last 24 hours as part of the militia group's ongoing campaign against international ocean shipping, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Sunday.

The Iran-backed Houthis hit the Tavvishi, a Liberian-flagged and Swiss-owned container ship with an anti-ship ballistic missile, CENTCOM said. The vessel was damaged, but no crew were injured, according to CENTCOM.

Two missiles fired by the Houthis struck the Norderney, a German-owned cargo ship operating under Antigua and Barbados flags, CENTCOM said. That ship sustained damage, but no crew were injured and the vessel continued on its journey, CENTCOM said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit Egypt and Israel on Monday at a critical time as Washington seeks to increase pressure on Hamas and Israel to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure the war does not expand onto Lebanon.

Blinken is set to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo before traveling to Israel later on Monday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a State Department schedule.

The visit comes after US President Joe Biden on May 31 outlined a three-phase ceasefire proposal from Israel that envisions a permanent end to hostilities, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

(Reuters)