Report: Israel struck vehicle in Lebanon; Gaza health ministry says 10 Palestinians killed (2024)

The United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC) published a report on Monday on the situation in the northern Gaza Strip, which said that there is not enough reliable information to declare a famine situation.

The FRC is part of the UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which is a scale that indicates food security in crisis zones, as measured on a scale from phase 1 (generally food secure) to phase 5 (famine/humanitarian catastrophe).

The report stated that the committee is "unable to endorse the IPC Phase 5 (Famine) classification" for northern Gaza, which was given by the U.S. Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). The FRC report said they did not "find the FEWS NET analysis plausible given the uncertainty and lack of convergence of the supporting evidence employed in the analysis. Therefore, the FRC is unable to make a determination as to whether or not famine thresholds have been passed."

The UN report emphasized that "all stakeholders who use the IPC for high-level decision-making must understand that whether a famine classification is confirmed does not in any manner change the fact that extreme human suffering is without a doubt currently ongoing in the Gaza Strip and does not in any manner change the immediate humanitarian imperative to address this civilian suffering by enabling complete, safe, unhindered, and sustained humanitarian access into and throughout the Gaza Strip, including through ceasing hostilities."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Amos Hochstein, U.S. President Joe Biden's envoy and senior advisor, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on Monday.

Hochstein arrived in Israel to discuss the situation in northern Israel and to try to deescalate the tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Prime Minster's Office said that the meeting was attended by Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman, Military Secretary Roman Goffman, political advisor Ofir Fleck and U.S. Deputy Ambassador to Israel Stephanie Hallett.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid addressed the upcoming discussions in the Knesset on the Haredi IDF exemption law at the opening of the Yesh Atid faction meeting. He stated, "This is a betrayal of the soldiers, a betrayal of the reservists, a betrayal of the Israeli middle class, and a betrayal of the IDF. The Israeli government is undermining the state's security. Netanyahu is selling out our soldiers, him and his smile."

Labor Party Chairman Yair Golan said at the faction meeting in the Knesset, "Anyone who doesn't want to set an early election date will find themselves dragged there by public pressure, the will of the people, and the growing sense of disgust." Golan added, "The protest will intensify and grow," and emphasized the need "to leverage military achievements to advance diplomatic moves and secure the release of all hostages."

A resident of Kafr Qara in northern Israel was arrested last month on suspicion of planning to join ISIS and go fight in Somalia, according to a statement on Monday on behalf of the Shin Bet and the Police. The detained is 17-years-old and planned to carry out acts of terrorism in Israel and abroad. An indictment attributing to him various security offenses was filed on Monday.

The suspect was arrested as part of a joint operation by the Shin Bet and Israel Police's Coastal District, the statement said. The investigation found that the suspect made preparations for his trip to Somalia that included writing a will, collecting funds, applying for a foreign passport and being in contact with "hostile sources on the internet."

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported that 10 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip in the last day. According to the data, 37,347 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, and 85,372 have been wounded.

Combat soldiers accused the state of failing to care for them during a discussion held in the Knesset's State Audit Committee, describing trauma that impacts their personal, family and professional lives. The discussion took place amid a report by the State Comptroller that claimed that the Defense Ministry failed to properly treat disabled soldiers suffering from PTSD.

Omer Amsalem, who fought in the 2014's Operation Protective Edge, said, "I've already been killed once. Why do we have to come here? We deserve you coming to our houses and kissing our feet. We fought for you. You didn't take care of us in Tzuk Eitan (Operation Protective Edge), in Lebanon you didn't take care of anyone. What are you even talking about? You're driving us to commit suicide. We want to live. Everyone here wants endowment, the quiet."

Aviram Atias, a combat soldier and friend of reservist Eliran Mizrahi, who committed suicide, said he no longer sleeps with his partner because he screams at night. "It's a real shame what we're going through. One day, everything crashes, and we don't know where to pick up the pieces. I thought I'd draw strength here, and I'm leaving here even more crushed, if I have to go through a two-year process to get something. If someone here was bleeding to death, everyone would jump in to help. Bu,t that's what's actually happening, and we're all bleeding to death here."

The chairman of the committee, MK Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid), said, "a country that sends its soldiers into battle should know how to take care of them when they return from it. In every aspect. It should not abandon them as soon as they return their weapons. I know that mental health centers were established and that the Defense Ministry and Rehabilitation Division are doing everything they can to provide assistance to anyone who needs it. We must understand – we are talking about a ticking-time bomb."

Here are the latest updates from day 255 of the war:

■ Following the resignation of MKs Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot from the government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he is dissolving the war cabinet. Some of the issues previously discussed by the war cabinet will now be transferred for discussion in the security cabinet, but sensitive decisions will be addressed in a limited forum.

■ Israeli air defense intercepted a suspicious aerial target over the sea near the northern city of Acre that crossed from Lebanese territory, the IDF spokesperson reported.

■ According to a Lebanese report, Israel attacked a vehicle in the Tyre area, in southern Lebanon.

■ Israel's defense exports in 2023 set an all-time record, amounting to over 13 billion dollars, according to an annual report by the Defense Exports Department of the Defense Ministry. 36 percent of 2023's defense export deals were related to air defense systems, compared to 19 percent in 2022.

■ IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant approved 11 new appointments of colonel and brigadier general-ranked army officers, including to positions in intelligence, strategy and planning.

■ Norway's international development minister, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, said the country will increase its current 275M NOK (roughly $25M) budget to UNRWA by another 100M NOK (roughly $9M).

■ The chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, Dr. Hagai Levine, told the State Audit Committee in the Knesset that the government does not have any plans for the rehabilitation and treatment of hostages, who were released or rescued from captivity, or for their family members.

■ In the last day, forces from the 99th Division killed armed terrorists in short-range battles, according to the IDF spokesperson. Several military buildings used for terrorist purposes were destroyed in the operation.

■ Nahal and Givati Brigade forces located weapons and destroyed booby-trapped buildings, and the 401st Brigade destroyed a weapons warehouse in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood from which an anti-tank missile was fired at them and fought terrorists face to face, with none of the soldiers wounded, according to the IDF spokesperson.

■ Members of Knesset Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism) announced in the Knesset that they are establishing a "lobby for the return of settlement in the Gaza Strip" "to prevent the continuation of terrorist threats and deter the enemy" and pressure Hamas to release the hostages.

■ A report by the Wall Street Journalrevealed details about the identities of the families who held Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov and Almog Meir Jan, the four hostages rescued by Israeli forces on June 8. The Al-Jamal and Abu Nar families are tied to Hamas.

■ In a post on X, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son, Yair Netanyahu, attacked the High Court's decision to suspend the State Comptroller's oversight of the IDF's and Shin Bet's response on October 7, and claimed the Court was covering up for the Left.

■ Anti-government protesters blocked traffic on two highways in central Israel, and teenagers blocked roads in central Israel to call for the release of the hostages.

■ "Hezbollah's increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation, one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region," the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a video statement in English.

Russia's Human Rights Commissioner said on Tuesday she had issued a fresh appeal to senior U.N. and other officials to take action to secure the release of Russian nationals still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Tatyana Moskalkova, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said she had launched the appeal after meeting in Moscow with relatives of those still being held.

"In one conversation, one of the mothers told me details of the situation of those being held," she wrote.

News reports have put at eight the number of hostages holding Russian passports, including three who were released.

Moskalkova said she had appealed to the U.N. High Commissioner For Human Rights, Volker Turk, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, and other officials "for the rapid return home of our compatriots".

At around 9 P.M. on Saturday night, a small group of about five protesters in blue vests stood under the bridge on Tel Aviv's Begin Road, watching and waiting. Demonstrators often light bonfires on the street in solidarity with the families of hostages, prompting police to force their way through the crowd, pushing attendees and making arrests.

The group was Magen Ezrachi, or "Civilian Shield," an initiative that puts volunteers on the scene to film instances of police brutality at protests, both to deter officers from further violence and to provide documentation of the events in order to file complaints and lawsuits.

The initiative is part of the Hitorerut movement, which was started by Yair Golan – the former Meretz chairman who just swept the Labor Party primaries – and social and political activist Shanna Orlik. Orlik, who was leading the Magen Ezrachi team in a blue vest of her own, told Haaretz that the group was founded after the left's major failure in the most recent election, through which Israel's most right-wing government ever came to power.

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