Update June 8th (Day 246)

UPDATES ON THE WAR – Day 246 (June 8^th):

*We are one Day 246 (June 8^th).

Anderson Tours is only 5 days away from their June Tour scheduled to depart next week (June 13th). Follow their Journey (links below) 

*Anderson Tours enjoyed a wonderful Holy Land Tour experience from April 4- 20^th. Follow our posts from that trip that are going up now: Anderson Tours Instagram , Anderson Tours Facebook, and/or Anderson Tours YouTube Channel

*We will now be updating this blog monthly due to our busy touring season. Below is a summary below of the last several week’s important points.

Headlines:

• Cease-fire negotiations continue as US President Biden proposed a 3 phase cease-fire arrangement that has been in debate for well over a week now.
• Four hostages rescued from Gaza taken to Israeli hospital and are in good condition.
• Cross-border attacks from Lebanon led to large fires blazing through Israel’s northern region this week, consuming swathes of land and leading to the evacuation of residents. Israel attributed the blaze to rocket fire from southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah said it had launched a “swarm of drones” at Israeli military sites.
• An armed man opened fire at the U.S. Embassy near Beirut. The gunman and five others arrested after shootout near the US Embassy in Beirut; suspect wore ISIS insignia, per US official.
• S. intelligence indicated that 30 to 35 percent of Hamas’ fighters have been killed in the war in Gaza and about 65 percent of its tunnels are still intact, Politico reported.
• The IDF said it has recovered from Gaza the bodies of three Israeli hostages who were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7: Itzhak Gelerenter, 53, Shani Louk, 23, and Amit Buskila, 28. The joint IDF-Shin Bet operation was prompted by intelligence on the location of the bodies that emerged from interrogations of Palestinians detained in Gaza. The three Israelis were at the Nova rave and ran to the Mefalsim Junction, where they were murdered by Hamas terrorists and their bodies taken into Gaza.

OUCH:

• Far-right Jewish youth taking part in Jerusalem’s Flag Parade became unruly. Hours before the parade officially launched, hundreds of young men streamed through the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, chanting “Death to Arabs” and violently attacking Palestinians, journalists and peace activists. Some also vandalized Palestinian shops.

YEAH:

• About 200 aid trucks, including four fuel trucks, are expected to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday, the Egyptian Red Crescent told Reuters.

JERUSALEM:

• Thousands of Israeli nationalists marched Wednesday (June 5^th) through Jerusalem including Palestinian dominated east Jerusalem as authorities deployed police with tensions sky-high nearly eight months into the Gaza war.
• The so-called Jerusalem Day flag march commemorates the Israeli army’s capture in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war of the city’s eastern sector, which is home to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site. Jews call it the Temple Mount.

IN THE NORTH (LEBANON):

• The Tensions are escalating on the Israel-Lebanon border as the Israeli military warned it was prepared to launch a large-scale attack in the north to deter the Iran-backed Islamist group Hezbollah.
• On Wednesday (June 5^th), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the northern city of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanese border, saying that Israel is prepared for “very intense action” in the north.
• After 20 hours of battling conflagrations in northern Israel, Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service said they had managed to gain control of most of the fires that erupted as a result of rocket barrages from Lebanon on Monday.
• Hezbollah claimed responsibility for drones fired at the Golan Heights, saying it was a response to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.
• Some 75 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel’s Golan Heights, the IDF said, adding that dozens were intercepted. Several drones infiltrated as well, with one exploding near Kibbutz Ga’aton and another intercepted. No casualties or damage were reported. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching combat drones toward northern Israel overnight into Friday.

GAZA (NORTH/CENTRAL):

• The IDF said that its forces are operating in central parts of Rafah, and have also concluded operations in Gaza’s Jabalya area, where it said an estimated 500-600 Hamas members were killed.
• The Israeli military says its troops have ended operations in eastern Jabaliya in the northern section of the Gaza Strip, having destroyed 10 kilometers of tunnels and several weapons production sites in days of fighting that included more than 200 airstrikes.
• An Israeli airstrike yesterday (June 6^th) struck a school in central Gaza, killing more than 30 people, including 12 women and children, according to Palestinian authorities. The Israeli military said between 20 and 30 militants were operating at al-Sardi School, pointing to classrooms it says were used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants to launch attacks.
• UN rights chief Volker Turk welcomed the cease-fire proposal presented by Biden, and said Israel had “brutally violated” the norms governing how to conduct war in Gaza, where the situation is “beyond catastrophic.”
• The IDF said that it has completed demolishing a Hamas tunnel in central Gaza.

GAZA (SOUTH):

• The Israeli army has expanded its ground operation in Rafah, marking the first entry of Israeli tanks into the city’s center since the Rafah crossing was brought under Israeli control.
• On Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced the deployment of six brigades to intensify their operations in the region.
• During a visit to Israel’s Southern Command, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is “preparing the alternative governing body” to replace Hamas after the war, adding that the plan is to “isolate regions, take out Hamas members and enter other forces which will allow for a different rule that challenges Hamas.”
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that a “tragic mistake” was made in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah that set fire to a camp housing displaced Palestinians and, according to local officials, killed at least 45 people.
• The strike only added to the surging international criticism Israel has faced over its war with Hamas, with even its closest allies expressing outrage at civilian deaths. Israel insists it adheres to international law even as it faces scrutiny in the world’s top courts, one of which last week demanded that it halt the offensive in Rafah.
• Netanyahu did not elaborate on the error. Israel’s military initially said it had carried out a precise airstrike on a Hamas compound, killing two senior militants. As details of the strike and fire emerged, the military said it had opened an investigation into the deaths of civilians.
• At least 35 Palestinians were killed Sunday (May 26^th) in an Israeli strike on a tent encampment, Gaza health officials said, that the Israeli military claims targeted two senior Hamas officials.
• The strike targeted a humanitarian zone in Rafah which the Israeli military previously instructed displaced Palestinians to shelter from attacks, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The ministry said most of the 35 dead were women and children, and that the death toll is likely to rise as “countless” are trapped in rubble.

POST WAR GAZA:

• PM Netanyahu told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Israel has no intention of resettling Gaza after the war, and that the goal remains ousting Hamas from power. “I have a very clear plan…We have to get rid of Hamas. Rafah is the last stronghold that ends the intense part of the fighting. If you mean resettling Gaza, it was never in the cards.”
• During a visit to Israel’s Southern Command, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is “preparing the alternative governing body” to replace Hamas after the war, adding that the plan is to “isolate regions, take out Hamas members and enter other forces which will allow for a different rule that challenges Hamas.”
• PALESTINIAN STATE: Talks between Hamas and the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be held in China in mid-June, officials from both sides told Reuters. They follow two recent rounds of reconciliation talks, one in China and one in Russia.
• Hamas’ political chief Haniyeh said that “those who speak of ‘the day after’ must understand, the Palestinian people won’t have Hamas replaced,” adding that “a national Palestinian plan must be promoted based on a unified leadership under the framework of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s institutions which will rule both Gaza and the West Bank.” He also emphasized the need for general elections for Palestinian presidency and parliament and establishing a new Palestinian National Council.
• The Slovenian government approved the recognition of an independent Palestinian state, Prime Minister Robert Golob said. The decision must also be approved by Slovenia’s parliament in the coming days.
• China supports the establishment of a Palestinian state that would be a UN member and calls for an international peace conference that would end the war between Israel and Hamas on the basis of a two-state solution, President Xi Jinping said to Arab leaders and diplomats at a forum in Beijing, adding that China would send $70 million to treat the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and will donate an additional $3 million to UNRWA.
• Several EU member states are considering recognizing a Palestinian state, in the wake of Spain, Norway and Ireland, the EU’s special representative for the Middle East peace process, Sven Koopmans, told Haaretz, warning that this was a harbinger of a larger international challenge for Israel.
• Ireland, Spain and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state. Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz quickly lashed out at Spain on X, saying it was “being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes.”
• Denmark’s parliament voted down a bill to recognize a Palestinian state. This comes a month after Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Denmark “cannot recognize an independent Palestinian state, for the sole reason that the preconditions are not really there.”
• Israel’s Foreign Ministry reprimanded the ambassadors of Ireland, Norway and Spain for their governments’ decision to recognize a Palestinian state, Israeli officials said, scorning the initiative as a bid to “resurrect… old, failed policies.”

IN THE SOUTH (RED SEA):

• The US and UK struck 13 Houthi targets in several locations in Yemen on Thursday evening (May 30th), in response to a recent surge in attacks by the Iran-backed militia group on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, US officials said.
• Yemen’s Houthis launched a missile attack on the US aircraft carrier Eisenhower in the Red Sea in response to US-UK strikes on the Yemeni provinces of Sana’a, Hodeidah and Taiz, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement on Friday.
• Yemen’s Houthis targeted six ships in three different seas, damaging the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Laax, the Iran-backed group said.

WEST BANK:

• The IDF confiscated weapons that an armed terrorist cell had hidden in a vehicle in the area of a Jenin hospital, the military said on Thursday.
• Troops began chasing the squad after it had opened fire at the forces. Aided by an IDF drone, the soldiers located the terrorists in a parking lot near the hospital. Inside the vehicles, troops found six guns and weapons, the IDF added.
• G7 finance leaders on Saturday called on Israel to release withheld clearance revenues to the Palestinian Authority in view of its urgent fiscal needs, and to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place.

NEGOTIATIONS – HOSTAGE RELEASE – CEASE FIRE:

• See Major Headlines above! It is THE hot topic.
• Egypt secretly altered the terms of the cease-fire and hostage release deal being discussed between Israel and Hamas, leading to the collapse of negotiations, CNN reported, citing three sources who said Hamas agreed to a different draft than the one presented to Israel and the U.S.
• Israel will not agree to any halt in fighting in Gaza that is not part of a deal that includes a return of hostages, a senior Israeli security official said on Friday. The comment came after a statement from Hamas declaring that it would be ready to reach an agreement including an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, as long as Israel stopped the fighting in Gaza.
• PM Netanyahu said President Biden’s cease-fire proposal won’t stop the war, but will lead to a temporary truce to release hostages held by Hamas.
• Egypt’s foreign minister said Hamas views the deal positively.
• S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak with the Emir of Qatar later on Monday (June 3^rd) to discuss efforts to finalize the three-stage cease-fire deal, two officials familiar with the matter reported.
• S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said mediators are “awaiting an official response” from Hamas, adding that “This gives them what they’ve been looking for, which is a cease-fire, and over time and through the phases the potential withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”
• Kirby also said President Biden made the proposal public “to try to energize the process and catalyze a different outcome… This wasn’t about jamming [Israel’s] prime minister or the war cabinet. This was about laying bare for the public to see how well and how faithfully and how assertively the Israelis came up with a new proposal.”
• In a speech on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden urged Hamas and Israel to close a three-stage deal that would include the release of hostages, as well as a cease-fire and bolstered humanitarian aid flow to Gaza.
• Biden said the first phase would last for six weeks and include a “full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, [as well as the] release [by Hamas] of a number of hostages – including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.” Palestinian civilians in Gaza would be able to return to their homes and at least 600 trucks of humanitarian aid would enter Gaza daily.
• In phase two, to be negotiated during phase one, Hamas would release all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers; Israel would withdraw from Gaza; there would be an agreement for a permanent end to hostilities.
• Phase three would include Hamas’ return to Israel of the remains of dead hostages and a major reconstruction plan for Gaza.
• Senior Israeli and U.S. officials said the Biden administration had informed Israel, as well as mediators Qatar and Egypt, in advance about the content of Biden’s speech. Families of hostages said that Biden delivered the speech to pre-empt any attempt by PM Netanyahu to sabotage the deal.
• Hamas leaders outside Gaza expressed support for the proposal, but sources emphasized that Hamas’ official answer will depend on the position of its leaders in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, who must implement the details of the deal, including releasing the hostages.

GLOBAL RESPONSE & INVOLVEMENT:

• ICC: The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders PM Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, for alleged war crimes committed since the Gaza war began on October 7.
• The International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request to issue arrest warrants against PM Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is “baseless,” Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Prosecutor Amit Aisman said in a statement, adding that the ICC has no authority to conduct an investigation since “the government’s legal counsel and Israel’s state prosecutor thoroughly examine every serious claim of law violations by state actors and enforce the law.”
• French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for the U.S. cease-fire proposal for a “durable peace,” declaring on X in English, Hebrew and Arabic that “the war in Gaza must end.”
• K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Hamas “must accept” the cease-fire deal announced by Biden, adding that “a stop in the fighting can be turned into a permanent peace if we are all prepared to take the right steps.”
• More than 3,000 people lined up on Fifth Avenue behind a large banner reading “Bring Them Home Now” ahead of the annual Israel Parade in New York City, the single largest group to ever march in the annual parade, according to organizers. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, addressing marchers before the parade, said: “We must not back down until we bring them home. Let us say that Hamas is evil and we will defeat Hamas.”
• The president of the Maldives, Dr Mohamed Muizzu, announced that Israeli passport-holders would be banned from entering and that the government would establish a fundraising campaign for Palestinians in partnership with UNRWA.
• On June 11, Jordan will host an emergency international conference on the humanitarian response to Israel’s war in Gaza, in coordination with Egypt and the UN, the Jordanian royal court said.
• France has banned Israeli companies from participating in this year’s annual Eurosatory arms and defense industry exhibition in Villepinte near Paris next month, the event’s organizers and the French Defense Ministry said. “Conditions are no longer met to host Israeli companies at the show at a time when the President is calling for Israel to cease operations in Rafah,” the French Defense Ministry’s statement said.
• Belgium’s Ghent University said it has severed ties with all Israeli universities and research institutions, as they no longer align with its human rights policy.
• Algeria is circulating a proposal for a UN Security Council resolution that would demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and order Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah immediately, AP reported. The draft resolution also demands that the cease-fire be respected by all parties, and calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken during Hamas’ attack on October 7.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to PM Netanyahu as a “maniac, psychopath, a vampire that feeds on blood,” Anadolu news agency reported. Turkey’s Communications Ministry quoted Erdogan as saying the president hoped for “a world free of Zionist perversion.”

TEL AVIV/SOUTHERN ISRAEL:

• Hamas fired a barrage of eight rockets at Tel Aviv and central Israel for the first time since January. The IDF said the volley was launched from Rafah in response to IDF activity against a large rocket production site in the area, adding that several rockets were intercepted. Rocket shrapnel fell through the roof of a home in Herzliya, in Ra’anana and between Petah Tikva and Bnei Brak.
• Tens of thousands of Israelis protested against the government and in support of the hostage release proposal presented by U.S. President Biden in several locations across the country, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Caesarea, and Be’er Sheva.

IN THE EAST (JORDAN/IRAQ/SYRIA):

• IRAN: Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami warned that Israel would pay a price for the death of an Iranian military adviser in an attack on the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday.
• the attack.

 

Holy Land Scripture Series

*If you would like to gain more understanding of the history of this country and conflict from a scriptural standpoint we recommend you take our Holy Land Scripture Course created to accompany our Virtual Tour of the Holy Land. Link below:

 

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

What should Israel do in order to secure peaceful borders and relations with the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors as well as facilitate the release the hostages still being held in Gaza?   

Who Should Lead the Palestinians After the Gaza War, and How?

*We know the questions are MANY and the issues deep and complex. We hope the information shared on this blog will help you process all the information and issues.

 

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