USA 🇺🇸 IRAN 🇮🇷 ISRAEL 🇮🇱
• Pentagon spokesman: Iran attack on Israel is certainly possible this week
• Iran is expected to skip a retaliatory strike on Israel if a Gaza ceasefire deal is reached, US President Joe Biden told on Tuesday, stressing “That’s my expectation”
• A senior Iranian security official said Iran, along with allies such as Hezbollah, would launch a direct attack if the Gaza talks fail or it perceives Israel is dragging out negotiations.
• Blinken postponed his trip to the Middle East, delaying his planned Tuesday departure due to “uncertainty about the situation”
• Special envoys of US president Biden Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein would visit the region, with the former traveling to Cairo and Doha and the latter heading to Beirut
• Blinken on Tuesday approved the sale to Israel of different military equipment worth over $20 billion, the Pentagon said
• Iran is set to hold naval drills in the Caspian Sea and the Iranian Air Defense Forces are currently conducting exercises across the northern part of the country, including areas in and around the capital, Tehran
• Defence Minister Gallant visited an intelligence base in northern Israel on Tuesday, stressing “We are following what is happening in Beirut, Tehran, and other places. We are engaged both in removing the threats and preparing all possibilities, in order to be able to attack wherever we decide.”
HOSTAGES 🎗️
• The US together with the main mediators for the deal Qatar and Egypt had announced Friday that Thursday’s talks would take place inviting both Israel and Hamas to attend
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had immediately pledged to send a team to Qatar
• Hamas said there was no need to attend given that it had already agreed to the proposal US President Joe Biden had unveiled on May 31
• Netanyahu denies claims he changed conditions of hostage deal negotiations
• Israeli negotiator reportedly complains talks doomed unless Netanyahu expands team’s mandate
LEBANON 🇱🇧
• A barrage of some 25 rockets was launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at the Upper Galilee in northern Israel a short while ago
GAZA, JUDEA&SAMARIA (so called West bank)
• visiting Moscow, Mahmoud Abbas tells Putin he’s ‘one of the dearest friends’ of Palestinians
• Hamas attempted to fire two rockets at Tel Aviv and central Israel on Tuesday, but failed with one of them landing in the Mediterranean Sea and one of them failing to even leave the Gaza Strip.
• IDF kills 100 Hamas terrorists, destroys terror tunnels in extended Rafah operations
• IDF using Gazans to check areas that may be booby-trapped before troops enter.
• A vehicle Improvised Explosive Devices intended for an attack on Israelis near Hebron detonated in the PA town of Halhul with two terrorists inside
ISRAEL 🇮🇱
• Netanyahu’s office slams Ben-Gvir for breaking Temple Mount status quo under which Jews can visit but not pray on the Temple Mount
• Gantz visits Bedouin women assaulted by settlers at West Bank outpost
• New finds from the 2000-year-old drainage channel in Jerusalem tells the city’s story in the days of the Second Temple from its prosperity until its decay and destruction
Sources: Israel Realtime, The Jerusalem Post, Ha’aretz, Axios, Times of Israel