Summary of the day …
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Wednesday Hamas had proposed “numerous changes” in its response to a ceasefire proposal, some of which are workable, some of which are not. Speaking in Doha, he said “Hamas could have answered with a single word: yes. Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and requested numerous changes. The time for decision is now. The longer this goes on, the more people will suffer”. Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said both Hamas and Israel have been counterproductive on different occasions
Hezbollah has launched its biggest salvo of rockets at Israel since the war in Gaza began, in apparent retaliation for the killing of a senior field commander. The Iran-allied militia fired a barrage of about 50 rockets into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, followed by another 90 fired at northern Israel. Some were intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems, but summer heatwave temperatures meant the projectiles caused fires in a number of areas. Israel says it has carried out strikes on the sources of the launches in southern Lebanon
An Israeli airstrike on the village of Jouaiya in southern Lebanon late on Tuesday night killed three Hezbollah operatives as well as Taleb Abdallah, the most senior commander to be killed since hostilities began eight months ago. His funeral was held in Beirut on Wednesday. The chief of Hezbollah’s executive council, Hashem Safieddine, has vowed to increase the intensity of attacks on Israel
A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel. A commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council accuses Hamas’s military wing and six other Palestinian armed groups – aided in some instances by Palestinian civilians – of killings, torture, sexual violence and systematic kidnapping. The commission found Israeli authorities “responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or wilful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity”
Israel’s military has issued a statement saying that it continues to operate in the central Gaza Strip and in the Rafah area. Airstrikes have also been reported in Gaza City to the north of the territory
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires from Israel, Gaza and Lebanon.
Qatar's prime minister: both Israel and Hamas have been counterproductive on deal
Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said both Hamas and Israel have been counterproductive over reaching a ceasefire deal.
The current proposal for a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory is the best way to bridge gaps between the two sides, Reuters reports he added, continuing on to say “We are witnessing a shift in this conflict in the recent period and there is a clear and firm call to end this war”.
Asked about Israel and Hamas’ commitment to the current proposal, he said both sides need to have pressure put on them to reach an agreement, and both have been counterproductive.
He said:
It is frustrating, lots of times. We have seen the behaviour from both parties on different occasions being counterproductive to the efforts. While we are respecting our role as mediator, we are trying our best not to consider ourselves as, you know, as a party of that conflict. What we are aiming for is one specific goal is to end the war, to end the suffering of the people, to get the hostages back. And then we wll think about the day after. That will remain our main focus. We are not going to give up on that vision.
Blinken: a Gaza ceasefire would take 'pressure' out of escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel
Antony Blinken, on a visit to Doha in Qatar, has spoken about the risk of escalating conflict between Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel.
He said:
One of our primary objectives is to prevent this conflict in Gaza spreading escalation in the region. And we’ve been on that from day one. We don’t want to see that escalation. And I think it’s also safe to say that actually no one is looking to start a war, to have that escalation.
And I think it’s also true that most involved believe that there can and should be, ideally, a diplomatic resolution to the differences that could spark conflict. And in particular a resolution that leads to the necessary conditions for people to be able to return to their homes and believe that they can live safely and securely in their own homes.
There are about 60,000 Israelis who have had to leave their homes in northern Israel because of the rocket attacks and the threat from Hezbollah. They have to be able to go home. There are people in southern Lebanon who also had to leave their homes, they should be able to go home.
So what I’ve heard from everyone concerned – and others are working on this – there’s a strong preference for a diplomatic solution.
Now, there’s no doubt in my mind that the best way also to empower a diplomatic solution to the north is a resolution of the conflict in Gaza. Getting the ceasefire, that will take a tremendous amount of pressure out of the system. It will take away a justification that Hezbollah has claimed for the attacks it is engaged in. And I think open a pathway to actually resolve this diplomatically. That’s what we’re determined to do.
Blinken: Hamas has proposed 'unworkable' changes to ceasefire proposal
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Wednesday Hamas had proposed “numerous changes” in its response to a ceasefire proposal, some of which are workable, some are not.
Speaking at a news conference in Doha, he said some of Hamas’s proposals in the response go beyond what the group had previously accepted in talks on a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza. Blinken refused to be drawn by media questions into providing more details on what Hamas had been requesting.
Blinken said:
Hamas could have answered with a single word: yes. Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and requested numerous changes. The time for decision is now. The longer this goes on, the more people will suffer. And when it took 12 days just to get the response to the proposal that president Biden put forward, more suffering took place during those twelve days. The longer this continues, the greater the suffering will be.
Appearing alongside Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, he described Qatar as “a tireless partner” working towards peace.
Blinken said that reaching a deal was “doable”, adding “I believe it’s absolutely necessary to try our hardest to do it. But there’s no guarantee.”
The secretary of state also gave a cautionary word to Israel, saying “We look, and continue to look very carefully, at international humanitarian law. At laws of armed conflict, human rights. And we have a number of our own processes within the US administration, including within my own department, to assess whether Israel or any other combatant in any other conflict is adhering to those.”
Qatar’s prime minister said there needed to be a permanent solution that allowed a Palestinian state and Israel to live side-by-side.
The funeral of Taleb Abdallah, the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed by Israel since 7 October, is taking place in Beirut.
Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem and Peter Beaumont report for the Guardian
A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.
The allegations were contained in two parallel reports prepared by a commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, chaired by the former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.
The first report focused on crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups during the 7 October attack, while the second examined Israel’s culpability in the large-scale deaths of civilians in the subsequent Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
Pillay, a South African legal expert, is viewed with hostility by Israel for her previous criticism of Israel’s human rights record. The reports constitute the first in-depth investigation into the events since 7 October by a UN body.
The commission, which has no power to impose any penalties, described serious crimes committed by both sides in the conflict, including by Palestinian armed groups during the attack on Israeli communities near the border with Gaza on 7 October.
Read more here: Israel and Hamas both committed war crimes, finds UN investigation
Two Egyptian security sources have told Reuters that Hamas is seeking written guarantees from the US that any truce would include a guarantee of a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this week an Israeli official said that the current ceasefire proposal would still allow Israel to pursue its war goal of eliminating Hamas and removing its military and governing capacity.
The apparent stated public aims of the two sides still seem to be incompatible.
The chief of Hezbollah’s executive council, Hashem Safieddine, has vowed to increase the intensity of attacks on Israel, Reuters reports.
Safieddine said that in the wake of the killing of one of the group’s senior commanders they would increase the intensity, force and quantity of its operations against Israel.
Reuters has a powerful report from Mahmoud Issa on everyday life in Gaza as families struggle to find water.
Catherine Russell, executive director of the UN children’s fund UNICEF warned the news wire that “without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days.”
Issa interviews Ahmed and Fatima Al-Shenbary in Jabalia who are having to walk 90 minutes in the hope of finding water after local wells were bulldozed.
Here’s an extract from Issa’s piece:
Children walk long distances to line up at makeshift water collection points. Often not strong enough to carry the filled containers, they drag them home on wooden boards.
“As you see, we bathe our children in a small basin. It’s water from washing dishes, not clean water, because of the water shortages,” said Ahmed’s wife Fatima.
She bathes her son on the floor in the concrete shell of a wrecked school that now passes for their latest home after several forced relocations.
“We have hepatitis, which causes yellowing of the eyes,” she said. “We also have intestinal infections - not just me but the whole school … Even ‘filtered water’ isn’t really filtered. We fool ourselves and pretend.”
Updated
Israeli forces have launched raids in southern Lebanon in the towns of Markaba, al-Adisa, and Deir Siryan, Al Jazeera is reporting.
Fighting has intensified on the Lebanese front on Wednesday, with Hezbollah saying it targeted Israeli spy equipment in the Ruwaisat al-Alam site in the Kafr Shuba Hills.
The strikes are in response to Israeli forces’ assassination of four Hezbollah members on Tuesday evening, including senior commander Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has arrived in Doha in Qatar for talks.
Israel’s military has confirmed that it killed senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb.
In a post on its official Telegram channel, the IDF said:
Last night, a Hezbollah command and control centre in the area of Jouya in southern Lebanon, which was used to direct terror attacks against Israeli territory from south-eastern Lebanon in recent months, was struck by the IAF. As part of the strike, Taleb Abdallah, the commander of the Nasr Unit in the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, was eliminated. Taleb Abdallah was one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders in southern Lebanon. For many years, the terrorist planned, advanced, and carried out a large number of terror attacks against Israeli civilians. Three additional Hezbollah terrorist operatives were also eliminated in the strike.
Israel does not always comment officially on strikes it has carried out outside its borders.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that 14 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza today.
Citing the Upper Galilee Regional Council, the Times of Israel reports that a drone launched from Lebanon detonated in an open area near the northern Israeli community of Zivon. No injuries have been reported.
Associated Press note that since 7 October, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 400 people, the majority of them Hezbollah members, but the dead also include more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed in northern Israel by fire from Lebanon since the war in Gaza began.
Israel’s military has said in a statement that it has struck “four terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Yater” inside Lebanon, and also at “a launcher used to fire projectiles from the area of Hanine”.
It says that after projectiles launched from Lebanon landed inside Israel, “fire and rescue services are currently operating to extinguish the fires that broke out as a result of the launches. No injuries were reported in the incidents.”
The IDF says ten more launches have been detected, which brings the number of launches it says have been fired today to about 170.
Reuters reports that Hezbollah has declared at least four attacks on Israel in response to what it called the assassination of senior commander Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb.
The group said it had attacked Israeli military headquarters in Ein Zeitim and Ami’ad, and an Israeli military air surveillance station in Meron, in each case firing dozens of Katyusha rockets, according to its statements.
Israel’s military has issued a statement saying that it continues to operate in the central Gaza Strip and in the Rafah area. It claims it is carrying out “intelligence-based, targeted operations” and to have “eliminated a number of armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters.”
It says that “Over the past day, the Israeli air force struck and dismantled over 30 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military structures.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
This week the health authority in Gaza has raised the reported death toll in the territory to over 37,000 since 7 October. Israel says it has lost 298 troops during its ground offensive. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Al Jazeera reports that three people have been killed by an Israeli attack in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Second large rocket barrage fired from Lebanon into Israel
Israel’s military now says that about 160 rockets have been fired into the north of the country from Lebanon.
In a statement the IDF said it had struck back at one of the sites inside Lebanon from where rockets have been launched. There are no reports of any Israeli casualties. The IDF said:
Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel a short while ago, approximately 70 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. A number of the projectiles were intercepted, most of them fell in open areas, and several fell in a number of locations in northern Israel. The details are under review. No injuries were reported. In addition, a short while ago, an IAF aircraft struck the launcher that fired toward northern Israel at 10:00 this morning in the area of Yaroun.
Earlier the IDF reported a barrage of 90 rockets been fired. Hezbollah has claimed the attack, which comes after an Israeli strike on the village of Jouya in southern Lebanon killed a senior Hezbollah field commander.
Hebrew news website Ynet described the attack as “unprecedented” and quoted the mayor of Tiberias, Yossi Nevea, saying “The feeling is very difficult, this is the first time in months that there has been an alarm here. The city is prepared and we are all fully prepared. There have been interceptions from what we know.”
Footage posted to social media shows several Iron Dome interceptions and rocket impacts in the Mount Meron area, following a barrage launched from Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/nn7q7tQKUI
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 12, 2024
Itay Blumental, military correspondent for Israel’s Kan news service, has posted to social media that “The IDF is attacking southern Lebanon with fighter jets and artillery fire”.
Earlier a barrage of about 90 rockets was fired from inside Lebanon into Israel. Hezbollah claimed to have launched the attack. There are no reports of any casualties inside Israel.
More details soon …
UN report finds that both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes on and after 7 October
A UN report has said that in its view both Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes on and after 7 October.
The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report covers the period from 7 October to 31 December 2023, and the findings are based on interviews with victims and witnesses, hundreds of submissions, satellite imagery, medical reports and verified open-source information.
The report accuses Hamas of “intentionally directing attacks against civilians” and committing “murder or wilful killing”. It also accuses Hamas of “torture, inhuman or cruel treatment” and “indiscriminately firing projectiles towards populated areas in Israel”. Hamas was also accused of “the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity” noting during the 7 October attack “the desecration of corpses by burning, mutilation and decapitation” and “the sexualized desecration of both male and female corpses” and “sexual violence”.
The report goes on to list what it says are Israeli war crimes, including “starvation as a method of warfare; murder or wilful killing; intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects; forcible transfer; sexual violence; outrages upon personal dignity” and says that “Israel inflicted collective punishment on the Palestinian population in Gaza.”
In its conclusions, the report says:
7 October 2023 has marked a clear turning point for both Israelis and Palestinians, and it presents a watershed moment that can change the direction of this conflict; with a real risk of further solidifying and expanding the occupation. Amid months of losses and despair, retribution and atrocities, the only tangible result has been compounding the immense suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, with civilians, yet again, bearing the brunt of decisions by those in power.
It continues:
For Israelis, the attack of 7 October was unprecedented in scale in its modern history, when in one single day hundreds of people were killed and abducted, invoking painful trauma of past persecution not only for Israeli Jews but for Jewish people everywhere … For Palestinians, Israel’s military operation and attack in Gaza has been the longest, largest and bloodiest since 1948. It has caused immense damage and loss of life and triggered for many Palestinians traumatic memories of the Nakba and other Israeli incursions.
Reuters reports the findings will be discussed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week. The COI is composed of three independent experts.
Israel does not cooperate with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva has already rejected the findings. Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said “The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel.”
The COI says Israel obstructs its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report is available to download here.
Israel's military says approximately 90 projectiles fired from Lebanon, no casualties reported
Israel’s military has issued an update on the missile barrage launched this morning from Lebanon. In a statement the IDF said:
Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel a short while ago, approximately 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon. A number of the projectiles were intercepted and others fell in several locations in northern Israel. As a result, fires broke out in a number of areas. The details are under review.
The claims have not been independently verified. It would be the largest barrage from Lebanon launched at Israel since 7 October.
Haaretz reports that Hezbollah has claimed responsibility. There are no reports of any casualties.
About 100 rockets have been launched from Lebanon into northern Israel this morning, according to reports. It is the largest single attack over the UN-drawn blue line which separates Lebanon and Israel since 7 October. Israeli media reports there are no casualties. The city of Tiberias, situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, was a target for the first time during the war.
A video shared on social media shows rocket impacts near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel amid the major barrage launched from Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/KkAG1eHt5X
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) June 12, 2024
Updated
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that a child was killed and several other wounded in an early morning Israeli strike on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. It also reports that seven civilians were killed when Israel struck at a house in the Al-Shujaiya neighbourhood, to the east of Gaza City.
The claims have not been independently verified. It has not been possible for journalists to verify casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is expected to head to Qatar today as part of his eighth trip to the region since the 7 October attacks inside southern Israel.
Welcome and summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
Hamas has issued a formal response to the US ceasefire proposal which seeks to bring an end to the Gaza war, with an official saying the group was seeking some “amendments”, and that their priority was to bring a “complete stop” to the war.
The US has said it is evaluating the Hamas response.
It comes as an Israeli strike on the village of Jouya in southern Lebanon killed a senior Hezbollah field commander and three fighters, according to the Lebanese armed group. Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, was the most senior member of the group killed in the eight months of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, a security source told Reuters.
More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who is in Israel as part of his eighth regional trip since the war began, said that Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had “reaffirmed his commitment” to the ceasefire plan outlined by the US, although it has not been formally accepted by either party to the conflict.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday it was the responsibility of the UN security council and the international community to press Israel to open all land crossings into the Gaza Strip to allow an increased flow of aid in.
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called on the international community to force Israel to stop using hunger as a weapon and remove obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip
Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah claimed to fire a barrage of missiles at Israeli targets in the Golan Heights area. Israeli media reported fires in the Nahal Zavitan area, with the head of the local council saying it remains unclear whether the fires were the direct result of rocket or missile strikes, or the result of fallen shrapnel
The UK has issued more than 100 arms export licences to Israel between the Hamas attack on 7 October and 31 May, according to government figures. The statistics show no arms export licence application was rejected or revoked during the conflict
The US has said it will provide an additional $404m in humanitarian aid to support Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and the region, bringing, it says, the total US assistance to more than $674m over the past eight months
