Israel has no 'clear and credible plan' to protect Rafah civilians, Blinken says: Gaza war, day 219

Thank you for following our live updates from the Gaza war and south Lebanon today. We'll be back tomorrow morning to continue our coverage.

Israeli warplanes have targeted forests on the outskirts of Rashaya al-Fakhar in the Hasbaya district, eyewitnesses told our correspondent in the south.

Israeli military aircraft have also raided the outskirts of the town of Hebbariyeh, also in the Hasbaya district.

Israeli artillery shelling has also targeted the outskirts of Rashaya, local residents tell our correspondent.

Israeli warplanes have raided the Halta farms on the outskirts of Kfar Shuba, in the Hasbaya district, eyewitnesses tell our correspondent in the south.

Speaking from Kfar Kila, Hezbollah MP and parliamentary bloc leader Mohammad Raad said the monthslong Gaza war will end with Hamas threatening Israel with the lives of its hostages and Israel allowing Hamas to practice its power in Gaza.

Raad’s comments came during a celebration held by Hezbollah to honor one of the group's slain members, Hassan Muhammad Ismail.

Raad added that "all parties concerned, including Hamas, almost reached a formula to end the war," but that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "insisted on invading Rafah and continuing the aggressive war on Gaza."

Image provided by Hezbollah's press office.

Hezbollah has announced that it targeted at 4:25 p.m. a deployment of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of Zebdine in the Lebanese Shebaa Farm with heavy missiles. The party claims to have directly hit its target.

Hamas has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "ruining the chances of an agreement" by attacking Rafah, AFP reports. It also says that US President Joe Biden's recent statements on the hostages are "a setback" for the negotiations.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has defended a decision to pause a delivery to Israel of 3,500 bombs over concerns they could be used in the Gazan city of Rafah, saying Israel lacked a "credible plan" to protect some 1.4 million civilians sheltering there, Reuters reports.

Speaking to ABC News' This Week, Blinken said that President Joe Biden remains determined to help Israel defend itself and that the shipment of 3,500 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs was the only US weapons package being withheld. ➡️ More details here.

Haaretz is reporting that the Israeli army has downed a "suspicious aerial target" that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon. It adds that no casualties or damage have been reported.

The Israeli media outlet adds that sirens sounded over a suspected hostile aircraft intrusion in northern Israel.

Image: Hezbollah supporters at the funeral of one of its members killed by an Israeli strike, in Adsheet (Marjayoun district), his home village in southern Lebanon, on May 12, 2024. (Credit: Photo sent by Hezbollah's press office)

It's been a quiet day in southern Lebanon, on the border with Israel. However, Hezbollah has just claimed responsibility for an attack carried out at 2:10 p.m. against Israeli "spy equipment" in the Israeli barracks of Hounine, opposite the Lebanese village of Houla (Marjayoun district). The Shiite party claims to have destroyed the targeted equipment.

Haaretz reported that warning sirens had sounded in northern Israel, but gave no further details.

A full-scale Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah "cannot take place," the UN human rights chief says, adding that it could not be reconciled with international law, AFP reports.

"The latest evacuation orders affect close to a million people in Rafah. So where should they go now? There is no safe place in Gaza!" Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.

"These exhausted, famished people, many of whom have been displaced many times already, have no good options."

He said that a full-scale offensive could have a "catastrophic impact … including the possibility of further atrocity crimes." ➡️ More details here.

Stopping British arms sales to Israel if it launches a ground assault on Rafah in the Gaza Strip would strengthen Hamas, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron says. ➡️ More details here.

⚡️ At least 35,034 Palestinians have been killed and 78,755 others wounded in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, Reuters reports, citing the Gaza Health Ministry. 

"The claim of “safe zones” [in Rafah] is false and misleading.," Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees,, says via his X account.

"The Israeli authorities continue to issue forced displacement orders also known as 'evacuation orders.' This is forcing people in #Rafah to flee anywhere and everywhere." he wrote.

Israel this morning sent tanks into eastern Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardments, killing 19 people and wounding dozens of others, Reuters reports, citing health officials.

Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people, most of whom were descendants of Palestinians who were driven from towns and villages in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation of the state of Israel.

The Israeli military yesterday said forces operating in Jabalia are preventing Hamas, which controls Gaza, from re-establishing its military capabilities there.

"We identified in the past weeks attempts by Hamas to rehabilitate its military capabilities in Jabalia. We are operating there to eliminate those attempts," said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel's military spokesperson, during a briefing to reporters.

Hagari also said that Israeli forces operating in Gaza City's Zeitoun district killed about 30 Palestinian militants.

Image: Displaced Palestinians travel in a vehicle as they flee Rafah, after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of the southern Gaza city, on May 12, 2024. (Credit: Hatem Khaled/Reuters)

Britain's foreign minister David Cameron says Israel should not carry out an offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah without a "clear plan" to protect people.

"For there to be a major offensive in Rafah, there would have to be an absolutely clear plan about how you save lives, how you move people out the way, how you make sure they’re fed, you make sure that they have medicine and shelter and everything," he told Sky News television.

"We have seen no such plan … so we don't support an offensive in that way," he added.

Israel meanwhile responded to Hezbollah's attacks and continued to strike south Lebanon:

* At around 8 p.m., Israeli aircraft flew over the eastern sector of south Lebanon, launching thermal balloons and trying to target Hezbollah’s drones, but the drones were able to reach the Israeli positions, a security source told our correspondent in south Lebanon.

* Around 8:20 p.m., Israeli soldiers fired heavy machine guns while throwing flares on the outskirts of Rmeish (Bint Jbeil district) in south Lebanon, according to eyewitnesses.

* Hezbollah's attack on Beit Hilal was followed by Israeli artillery shelling targeting the Wadi Hassan area on the outskirts of the towns of Jibbayn and Majdalzon (Sour district). Israel also targeted Jabal Balat with a number of shells, according to our correspondent in the south.

* This morning, a cautious calm prevails in the border villages in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah continued to launch attacks against Israel yesterday evening and into the night:

* At around 8 p.m. Hezbollah launched an airstrike targeting the Beit Hilal Israeli military base and “the newly developed Iron Dome platforms,” the group said in a statement. “Some of them have been completely disabled,” the statement added.

* At 8:50 p.m., Hezbollah launched an assault drone to target a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the center of the Beit Hilal Israeli military base, the group said in a statement, adding that “despite [Israel’s] attempt to intercept it with F-16 warplanes, the drone reached its target and hit it accurately.”

* At approximately midnight, Hezbollah targeted the Israeli al-Marj site with artillery shells, a statement by the group said. Hezbollah claims to have achieved a direct hit on the target.

* The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this morning — citing the Israeli army — that drones infiltrating from Lebanon caused alarms to sound in Nahariya, northern Israel. The report does not specify at what time the alarms sounded.

Gaza's civil defense agency says two doctors have been killed in Israeli strikes on the town of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

"The bodies of Dr Mohammed Nimr Qazat and his son, Dr Youssef, were discovered as a result of a strike on the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, and were transferred to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital" in the city, the source said.

The Israeli army is continuing its bombardments in the Gaza Strip, also in Rafah, and has ordered further evacuations from this town in the south of the Palestinian territory as it threatens a major ground offensive. "Our operations are limited and focused on tactical advances" while "avoiding densely populated areas,"  the Israeli army said in a statement.

While mediation efforts for a truce and the release of hostages appear to be stalling, US President Joe Biden yesterday said that a cease-fire is possible "tomorrow" in the war between Israel and Hamas if the Palestinian movement releases the hostages.

Biden broached the subject after warning Israel on Wednesday that he would stop supplying it with artillery shells and other weapons if it attacked Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, while deploring that civilians had been killed by the dropping of American bombs.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this morning called for an "immediate" cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, the return of hostages and an increase in aid to the besieged Palestinian territory, AFP reports.

"I reiterate my call, the world's call for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate increase in humanitarian aid. But a cease-fire is only the beginning. It will be a long road to recover from the devastation and trauma of this war," he said in a video address to an international donor conference in Kuwait.

Good morning, 

Welcome back to our live coverage of the conflict in Gaza and south Lebanon and related events across the region.