Source: Mondoweiss.net
The UN has warned of “imminent” famine in Gaza as starvation spreads due to border closures. Meanwhile, following Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant’s visit to Washington, the U.S. and Israel have asserted they do not want war with Hezbollah.
Casualties
- 37,765 + killed* and at least 86,429 wounded in the Gaza Strip. Among the killed, 27,706 have been fully identified. These include 7,779 children, 5466 women, and 2418 elderly. In addition, around 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble.*
- 553+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. These include 135 children.**
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- 666 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7.***
* Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its WhatsApp channel on June 23, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on June 23, this is the latest figure.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded, according to declarations by the head of the Israeli army’s wounded association to Israel’s Channel 12, exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.
Key Developments
- Israel has killed 167 Palestinians and wounded 397 across Gaza since Thursday, June 24. This raises the death toll since October 7 to 37,765 and the number of wounded to 86,429, according to the Gaza health ministry.
- U.S. says it does not want a war on the Lebanese border at the conclusion of the tour of Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant.
- Gallant says Israel prefers diplomatic solutions rather than war with Lebanon but can’t accept Hezbollah presence on northern border.
- U.S. special envoy Amos Hockstein tells Lebanese officials that U.S. will not stop Israel from attacking Lebanon.
- Israel transfers troops to Lebanese border, begins military drills.
- Israel begins new onslaught on Shuja’iyyah neighborhood in Gaza City for second time since December last year.
- Gaza’s Government Media Office says that 25,000 Palestinian patients have been denied treatment outside of Gaza due to Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing.
- Government Media Office says that 15,000 humanitarian aid trucks are stuck on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
- Israel kills 11 people, mostly women and children in strike on UNRWA school in al-Shati’ refugee camp in Gaza City.
- Half of Gaza’s families have sold or exchanged their clothes for food since October, one out of five go through several days without food, according to UN report.
- Israel arrests over 120 Palestinians in West Bank in under 24 hours.
- Israeli army admits to the death of one officer and the injury of 16 soldiers in an ambush by Palestinian fighters during a night raid on Jenin.
- Human rights groups say Israel has significantly reduced food quantity for Palestinian prisoners. Ben-Gvir admits that the move is part of a “deterrence policy.”
- Israel bombs town of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah attacks Israeli army base of al-Matalleh in the Galilee.
War possibilities remain high after Gallant’s U.S. tour
Israel’s war minister Yoav Gallant said at the conclusion of his top-level meetings in Washington that Israel does not want an all-out war with Lebanon and that it prefers the diplomatic route for a solution. However, he added that Israel can’t accept the presence of Hezbollah’s units at its northern border.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the Biden administration was angry over Netanyahu’s public remarks about the U.S.’s withholding of the delivery of arms to Israel. According to reports, the White House told Israel that the delivery of arms would not be completed even after the end of Israel’s operations in Rafah, which Israel has announced to be nearly over.
Reports indicated that Washington is concerned that Israel could use the arms, mainly precision bombs with high payloads, to attack Hezbollah on the Lebanese front….