UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – Five more people were injured and two people remain unaccounted for after Israeli warplanes targeted a convoy of fuel trucks entering Lebanon.
Israeli Parliament votes to revive controversial bill on military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews. Antony Blinken meets with the leaders of the Israeli opposition to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza… Le Figaro explains to you the situation linked to the conflict in Gaza this Tuesday, June 11.
Five dead, including three Hezbollah members in Israeli strike on Syrian-Lebanese border
Five people were killed before midnight Monday, including three Syrians working with Hezbollah, in Israeli strikes targeting a convoy of fuel trucks entering Lebanon from neighboring Syria, an NGO and military sources said. “Three Syrians who work with Hezbollah and two Lebanese were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a convoy of tankers entering Lebanon, on the border with Syria, on the road between Hermel and Qousseir”the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahmane, told AFP.
The NGO, based in the United Kingdom but which has a vast network of sources in the war-torn country, added that five other people had been injured and that two people had not yet been found. “In the night, Israeli warplanes struck a military compound of Hezbollah unit 4400, responsible for logistical reinforcement (…) and the smuggling of weapons to and from the Lebanon », the Israeli army said in a statement, saying it had targeted two sites in the Baalbek sector. The IDF also claimed responsibility for strikes in southern Lebanon, saying it carried out these operations after one of its drones was shot down in Lebanese skies on Monday.
At the same time, the Syrian anti-aircraft defense was activated to counter the attack, according to the OSDH. “At least three Hezbollah members were killed by nine Israeli missiles targeting oil tankers”, a military Source told AFP. She added that these strikes also targeted a building in the Lebanese region of Hermel, some 140 km from the Israeli border, “near the Syrian town of Hawch el-Sayyed Ali, completely destroying it”.
IDF announces death of four soldiers in Gaza fighting
The Israeli army announced Tuesday the death of four of its soldiers, killed in fighting the day before. The soldiers, three conscripts aged 19 and 20 and a 24-year-old active commander, were “killed during fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip » Monday, the army said in a statement, without giving details of the circumstances of their death.
According to Israeli public broadcaster Kan, the four soldiers were killed in the explosion of a booby-trapped building in Rafah, a town on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip where the Israeli army is concentrating its efforts with the announced aim of destroy the last battalions of the armed wing of Hamas. The latter had claimed the day before to have killed or injured an unknown number of Israeli soldiers by blowing up a booby-trapped building in the Chaboura Palestinian refugee camp in Rafah. The daily military correspondent Times of Israel reports for its part that seven other soldiers were injured in this explosion, five of them seriously.
Israeli Parliament votes to revive timid ultra-Orthodox conscription bill
The Israeli Parliament voted early Tuesday to revive a controversial bill defended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but criticized by his Defense Minister, on military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews. Military service is compulsory in Israel, but ultra-Orthodox Jews can avoid conscription to devote themselves to the study of Judaism’s sacred texts. This bill aimed to gradually and limitedly increase the conscription of religious people, in particular by imposing army enlistment targets for students of Talmudic schools. The deputies voted Tuesday (63 for, 57 against) in favor of continuing the study of this bill which will now be “referred for discussion to the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense for further study before second and third readings”the Knesset said.
“We must not play petty politics on the backs of the great fighters of the army”declared after the vote Gallant who had already challenged his prime minister on this issue by asserting: “Bearing the burden of military service together is a national challenge”. Opposition leader Yair Lapid castigated Parliament’s vote on X (formerly Twitter) accusing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “All” to do to stay in power and thus not have “no value”. “This is one of the most despicable moments in the history of the Knesset. In the midst of another day of heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip, this promiscuous government adopts an escape law (…)”from military service, he added.
Blinken in Israel to discuss Gaza ceasefire
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with leading Israeli opposition leaders on Tuesday as part of a new tour of the Middle East aimed at defending a Gaza ceasefire plan backed by the Security Council. UN security. The head of American diplomacy meets Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv with Benny Gantz, a resigned member of the Israeli war cabinet, then with opposition leader Yaïr Lapid, before going to Jordan.
This eighth regional tour by the Secretary of State since the start of the war in the Palestinian territory comes as the UN Security Council adopted on Monday a draft American resolution supporting the ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas. The text, which “greet” the truce proposal announced on May 31 by American President Joe Biden received 14 votes in favor, with Russia abstaining. “This Council has sent a clear message to Hamas: accept the ceasefire agreement on the table. Israel has already accepted it and the fighting could stop today if Hamas did the same., reacted the American ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. In a statement, Hamas “greeted” the Security Council resolution, emphasizing that it “wishes to reaffirm its willingness to cooperate with the brother mediators to begin indirect negotiations concerning the implementation of these principles”.
