Troops to move from Gaza to Lebanon border, says Netanyahu as US warns of widening conflict

Top US general warns Iran would be more inclined to provide support to Hezbollah, which could further broaden the conflict in the region

Israel’s military has reported that overnight it has repeatedly struck at target inside Lebanon.

It claims to have struck “a Hezbollah military structure” and “Hezbollah operational infrastructure sites”. The claims have not been independently verified.

It says that as a result of “an anti-tank projectile attack in the area of Metula” two members of Israeli forces have been injured.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that fighting in Gaza is entering a less intense phase, which would allow Israel to deploy more forces to the north, close to Lebanon.

“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this. First and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to bring our [evacuated] residents home,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.

His comments came as the top US general said that an Israeli offensive in Lebanon has the potential to increase the risk of a broader conflict that draws in Iran and Iran-aligned militants.

Air force Gen Charles Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “Hezbollah is more capable than Hamas as far as overall capability, number rockets and the like. And I would just say I would see Iran be more inclined to provide greater support to Hezbollah,” Brown.

More on that in a moment, first here’s a roundup of the day’s other main news.

• Israel’s defence minister has flown to meet senior Biden administration officials in Washington for what he has described as “critical” talks over the twin conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yoav Gallant, accompanied by the Israel Defense Forces’ deputy chief of staff, will meet the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, as well as the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Joe Biden’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein.
• Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile batteries risk being overwhelmed in the opening strikes of any significantly escalated conflict with Hezbollah. The assessment delivered by US officials late last week, echoing recent analysis by experts in Israel and the United States, comes amid fears that a war with Hezbollah could be a far more dangerous undertaking than the devastating 2006 second Lebanon war, when Israeli bombing caused huge destruction in Lebanon.
• Israeli troops tied a wounded Palestinian man, Mujahed Azmi, to a military vehicle during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the army said Sunday, admitting that soldiers had violated operational procedures. Footage of the incident, which occurred on Saturday, has gone viral and shows Azmi, a Jenin resident strapped horizontally to the bonnet of a military Jeep being used as a human shield as it passes through a narrow alley.
• Eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a training college near Gaza City being used to distribute aid, Palestinian witnesses said, as Israeli tanks pushed further into the southern city of Rafah. The strike hit part of an industrial college run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, the witnesses said. Unrwa and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
• The EU’s foreign affairs chief has called for an independent probe into a shelling which damaged the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza. In a post on social media, Josep Borrell said the EU condemned the shelling which also “led to dozens of casualties”. The ICRC reported on Saturday that heavy-calibre projectiles “landed within metres” of its office and residences, killing at least 25 people. “An independent investigation is needed and those responsible must be held accountable,” Borrell said.

Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that Israel has detained at least 59 Palestinians near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Wafa reports Israeli forces “also detained dozens of young men and interrogated them on the ground before releasing them”.

The detentions took place during raids on Silwad, east of Ramallah, and Kafr Nimah, to the west of the city.

Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the 7 October attack, adding to thousands that were in Israeli detention prior to that date.

B’Tselem, the Israeli information centre for human rights in the occupied territories, said in a 23 June update that, according to the latest figures released by Israeli security forces, “At the end of March 2024, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) was holding 8,611 Palestinians in detention or in prison on what it defined [as] ‘security’ grounds, including 1,141 from the Gaza Strip. At that time, the IPS was also holding 1,556 Palestinians, 7 of them from the Gaza Strip, for being in Israel illegally.”

This chart from B’Tselem indicates that detention levels in 2023 and 2024 have reached levels not seen since 2008, including a vast increase in “administrative detainees”.