Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Hamas, PIJ send ceasefire reply to mediators

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To learn more about the Israeli military attack in the occupied West Bank’s Kafr Dan which killed six Palestinians, click here.

To catch up on the response by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to the UN-backed Gaza ceasefire plan, read here.

And to follow all of our coverage on Israel’s war on Gaza, go here.

Here’s a quick look at the latest news:

• An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Jouaiya has killed a senior commander of Hezbollah, multiple sources report. The strike killed at least four people, three security sources told the Reuters news agency.
• The US has received Hamas’s formal reply to a UN-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal sent to Qatari and Egyptian mediators, White House spokesperson John Kirby said.
• A German court has refused a request to block arms exports to Israel.
• Six Palestinians have been killed during an Israeli military raid on the town of Kafr Dan in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
• The UN is examining both Israeli and Palestinian forces’ involvement in a deadly military operation led by Israeli forces to rescue captives in Gaza on Saturday, which killed hundreds of Palestinians.

Hamas’s response to a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal “opens up a wide pathway” to reach an agreement, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the group’s political bureau, has said in a statement, the Reuters news agency reports.

The movement’s response is “responsible, serious and positive”, al-Rishq added.

Earlier, we reported that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a joint statement that they had submitted a response to a UN-backed ceasefire proposal to mediators in Qatar and Egypt.

The incident took place at the Annab military checkpoint, east of Tulkarem city, the Wafa news agency is reporting.

Separately, Wafa said Israeli forces raided the Shuweika suburb, north of Tulkarem, firing sound bombs and live bullets. No injuries were reported, the news agency said.

More than 9,100 people have been detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank since October 7.

Austrian academics, legal experts and activists are concerned the space for basic freedoms is shrinking.

In recent months, authorities have cracked down on multiple Palestinian solidarity demonstrations.

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After Israeli forces withdrew from the southern Gaza city some two months ago, residents have started to slowly return.

“All the places are destroyed,” Mohamed Saad Ghanem, a watch repairman, told Al Jazeera.

“My son works. Even my little daughter works because we must earn some money. It’s a tragedy, a catastrophe, for every single one here.”

“Threats are still surrounding all of us. Regardless which area we are in, we’re still facing dangers no matter where we are,” he added.

Another resident, Emad Mohamed Ismaeel Abul-Kass, said there were no services available in the area.

“We have no services at all. We can hardly use our mobiles to contact our relatives. The situation is catastrophic. There is danger everywhere. Situation can change at any moment.”

An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Joya has killed a senior commander of Hezbollah, the Reuters and AFP news agencies are reporting, citing Lebanese security sources.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese armed group in a post on Telegram announced the death of one of its senior figures, Talib Sami Abdullah.

As usual, Hezbollah did not mention when or where exactly he was killed.

Crowds of people showed up to the funeral procession for the six Palestinians killed earlier today by Israeli forces during a raid in the West Bank city of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin.

Social media footage, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad agency, showed people chanting slogans and praising those who died.

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Despite the efforts of humanitarian actors over the past eight months, the amount of aid allowed into Gaza has fallen to unacceptably low levels, said the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, in comments carried by the Wafa news agency.

“A ceasefire is desperately needed to deliver life-saving aid to those in need,” he said at the Gaza summit in Jordan.

He stressed the need to reopen the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem, known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis, crossing points, as well as the Jordan corridor.

“Aid is piling up at Gaza’s borders when children are dying of hunger just a few kilometres away. We can and we must stop this catastrophe,” said Lenarcic.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder says that “so much suffering is being inflicted on Gaza”.

“The intentions must now be clear. The absolute devastation of Gaza, indeed, it’s already happened,” Elder, who is currently in the coastal enclave, added in a video post on X.

“Homes, hospitals, schools, universities, agriculture, the economy… devastated. And still the bombs fall.”

Ceasefire!#Gaza pic.twitter.com/ApCSsSS9yL

— James Elder (@1james_elder) June 11, 2024

Israeli air raids have targeted residential homes in the Brazil neighbourhood, in the southern area of Rafah, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues report.

Israel’s ground offensive in Rafah has been ongoing since early May despite an order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt operations there.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says at least one Palestinian has been killed by Israeli forces storming a town in the northern occupied West Bank.

Watch our video report below:

In a statement on Telegram, the Lebanese armed group says its fighters bombed Kfar Blum and Gesher Haziv in northern Israel with dozens of Katyusha rockets.

Moreover, Hezbollah said it bombed a group of Israeli soldiers at the Birkat Risha near Lebanon’s southern border.

Since the war broke out in Gaza on October 7, Hezbollah has exchanged deadly fire across the border with Israel, stoking international concerns about the conflict spreading across the region.

Daniel Levy says that “this demand for a full withdrawal is not new. It is in the paper, it is in the proposal, it is even in the UN resolution. This is part of any deal.”

“The question being posed is what kind of commitment that you as a mediator – namely the US – are you making to your own plan in all its phases. Because what has prevented a breakthrough is whether this is an actual ceasefire or is this a temporary pause followed by more deaths, horror and destruction,” he told Al Jazeera.

Levy said that Israel’s answer has been unequivocal: the war would continue – even as the US said otherwise. “That is the question that not just Hamas and Islamic Jihad are asking, but the whole world is asking.”

The US has received Hamas’s formal reply to a UN-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal sent to Qatari and Egyptian mediators, White House spokesperson John Kirby says.

Kirby told reporters that it was helpful to have a response from Hamas and that US officials are currently evaluating it.

Earlier today, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the UN Security Council’s vote in favour of the Gaza ceasefire plan made it “as clear as it possibly could be” that the world supports the proposal.

Video footage shared by a local Lebanese news outlet, and verified by Al Jazeera, shows plumes of thick smoke arising from an area in the town of Joya.

Earlier we reported that Israeli jets and drones targeted several villages in southern Lebanon, namely Aita al-Shaab, Aitaroun and the outskirts of the towns of Kafra and Haris.

Testimonies from several prisoners who were forcibly disappeared by the Israeli army from Gaza and were just released have revealed that detainees are being subject to torture, a rights group says.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that thousands of Gaza detainees are still subject to enforced disappearance. Israeli authorities refuse to disclose their identities and places of detention, and is preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting them.

“With the release of some Gaza, accounts of torture crimes and harsh detention conditions are emerging, in addition to the state of the released prisoners, which reflects the level of torture and humiliation to which they were subjected,” the group said.

The group also said that Israeli authorities are refusing to disclose the number of prisoners who have died in prison.

“The Prisoners’ Club renews its demand for the necessity of an international investigation into the crimes and grave violations committed against detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons and camps.”