Hamas not attending Gaza peace talks, Israel announces construction of new illegal settlements in West Bank

(Patria) - As the Middle East region prepares for the announced retaliation of official Tehran against Israel, due to last month's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian territory, Iran is conducting a military exercise in the north of the country, reported the Mer news agency.

Tel Aviv says it is ready to act in case of an attack. At the same time, efforts for a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip are intensifying ahead of the continuation of formal negotiations this Sunday. Follow the developments on CdM.

Israel announces construction of new illegal settlements in West Bank

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that the state will continue with the planned construction of settlements in the West Bank, i.e., in the part of the territories that Israel occupies.
Smotrich is part of the Israeli government belonging to the far-right wing, and this decision, which is contrary to international law, also shows that.

“No decision against Israel will stop the development of settlements. We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state. This is the mission of my life,” said Smotrich.

The majority of United Nations member states consider settlements built in the West Bank and other territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war to be illegal under international law.

Abbas: Russia an honest broker, should participate in peace negotiations

President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas blamed the US for trying to exclude Russia from Middle East peace negotiations, stating that Moscow should participate in such negotiations.

Speaking to the Russian state news agency TASS during a visit to Moscow, Abbas said that Russia “has always sought and is seeking ways for a peaceful solution to the problem.”

“America has always wanted to exclude Russia from this process,” added Abbas. “Under no conditions do we accept the exclusion of Russia from any format for a Middle East solution because it has a genuinely honest stance on the Middle East issue, based on international law.”

Hamas not attending Gaza peace talks

The Palestinian group Hamas announced that it will not participate in a new round of Gaza peace talks, scheduled for tomorrow in Qatar.

Reuters reports that this reduces hopes for a ceasefire which, according to Iranian sources, could prevent an Iranian attack on Israel.

The United States stated that it expects the indirect talks to be held as planned, tomorrow in the Qatari capital Doha, and that a ceasefire agreement is still possible.

However, Axios reported that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to the Middle East, which was supposed to start on Tuesday.

Three senior Iranian officials stated that only a ceasefire agreement in Gaza would prevent Iran from directly retaliating against Israel for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The Israeli government announced that it will send a delegation to the negotiations on Thursday, but Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, requested a feasible plan for implementing the proposal it has already accepted, instead of new negotiations.

A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters that Hamas is committed to the proposal presented to it on July 2, which is based on a United Nations Security Council resolution and a speech by US President Joe Biden.

He stated that the movement is ready to immediately start talks on the mechanism for implementing that proposal.

“Going to new negotiations allows the occupier to impose new conditions and use the labyrinth of negotiations to carry out further massacres,” said the Hamas official.

Ten wounded in Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon

The Lebanese Ministry of Health confirmed that 10 people were wounded, three of them seriously, in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Al-Abbassieh in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon.

The National News Agency reports that the wounded were transferred to several hospitals in the area.

Israeli army claims no casualties after Hezbollah rocket attacks

The Israeli army confirmed that rockets entered from Lebanon, but says they fell in open areas and there were no casualties.

They also released aerial footage to show that they carried out another airstrike on a “military structure” used by Hezbollah in the Aita al-Shaab area of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah today claimed responsibility for five attacks on Israeli positions, including multiple rocket attacks. It said it targeted an Israeli military site in the occupied Kfarchouba hills, a barracks in the occupied Shebaa Farms, and the settlement of Shtula among others.

Activists: Israel killed 2,100 babies under two years old in Gaza

The organization Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reports that of the nearly 17,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 7, nearly 2,100 were babies under two years old.

“The number of Palestinian children – whether infants or children in general – killed by the Israeli army is terrifying, and the rate of their killing is unprecedented in the history of modern wars,” says the Geneva-based organization.

“It also represents a dangerous trend based on the dehumanization of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army targets Palestinians and their children daily, methodically and widely, in the most abhorrent and brutal ways possible, and almost without pause for 10 consecutive months.”