Iran was at a disadvantage that could be exploited in the future after Israeli airstrikes over the weekend, said Israel's defence minister, Yoav Gallant, on Monday.
A merchant vessel reported two explosions near a ship travelling 14 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Al Dhubab, said British maritime security firm Ambrey on Monday.
Israeli tanks thrust deeper on Monday into two north Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping about 100,000 civilians, said the Palestinian emergency service, in what the military said were operations to eliminate regrouping Hamas militants.
Iran at disadvantage after airstrikes, says Israeli defence minister
Iran was at a disadvantage that could be exploited in the future after Israeli airstrikes over the weekend, said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday.
“You have conducted accurate strikes on their radars and air defence systems, which creates a huge disadvantage for the enemy when we will want to strike later,” a statement released by Gallant’s office quoted the defence minister as saying during a meeting with air force chiefs.
“You have also damaged their production capabilities, which changes the balance of power. Their supplies are now set, and this affects their calculus. Both their attack and defensive capabilities have been weakened.”
Iran has said Saturday’s airstrikes caused limited damage. A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that Tehran would “use all available tools” to respond.
Explosions reported near Yemen’s coast
A merchant vessel reported two explosions near a ship travelling 14 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Al Dhubab, said British maritime security firm Ambrey on Monday.
The report followed statements by the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency, which initially reported receiving information about two explosions related to an incident 25 nautical miles south of Yemen’s port of Mokha.
UKMTO later reported a third explosion near the vessel, confirming that the ship and crew were safe and had continued to their next port of call.
It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were related.
Al Dhubab and Mokha lie along Yemen’s western coast near the Bab al-Mandeb strait, making them strategically significant along the Red Sea corridor.
About 100,000 residents trapped in north Gaza offensive
Israeli tanks thrust deeper on Monday into two north Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping about 100,000 civilians, said the Palestinian emergency service, in what the military said were operations to eliminate regrouping Hamas militants.
The Israeli military said soldiers captured about 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid into Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabalia camp. Hamas and medics have denied any militant presence at the hospital.
The Gaza Strip’s health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday, 13 of them in the north of the devastated coastal territory.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number independently.
The emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault into the north, an area where the military said it had wiped out Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.
Talks led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to broker a ceasefire resumed on Sunday after multiple abortive attempts, with Egypt’s president proposing an initial two-day truce to exchange four Israeli hostages of Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, to be followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the latest meetings in Doha focused on a new outline that took into account previous proposals and regional developments.
He said mediators would resume talks in the coming days “in a continued attempt to advance a deal”, without elaborating.
To date, Israel has repeatedly said the war will go on until Hamas is eradicated while the Islamist movement has ruled out an end to fighting until Israeli forces leave Gaza.
North Gaza’s three major hospitals, whose officials refused Israel’s orders to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli fire during the assault and run out of medical, food and fuel stocks.
At least one doctor, a nurse and two child patients had died in those hospitals due to a lack of treatment in the past week.
North Gaza residents said Israeli forces were besieging schools and other shelters housing displaced families, ordering them out before rounding up men and pushing women and children to leave the area for Gaza City and points in the south.
Only a few families headed toward southern Gaza as the majority preferred to relocate temporarily in Gaza City, fearing they could otherwise never regain access to their homes.
Some said they had written their death notices in case they died from the constant bombardment.
North Gaza was the first part of the enclave to be hammered by Israel’s ground offensive after Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, with intensive bombing largely flattening towns.
Nevertheless, Hamas-led militants continue to attack Israeli forces in hit-and-run operations.
Hamas’ 2023 attack killed 1,200 people and resulted in more than 250 hostages being taken into Gaza, per Israeli tallies.
The death toll from Israel’s retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza had reached 43,020, said the Gaza health ministry in an update on Monday.
Seven killed as Israel bombs Tyre in South Lebanon
Israel continued battering Lebanon on Monday, including an early-morning airstrike on a district in the southern port of Tyre that left seven dead, said the Lebanese health ministry.
The Israeli military later issued an evacuation order for large swathes of Tyre, including areas that had not been previously asked to evacuate, including neighbourhoods near a seaside hotel where journalists are usually based.
In an update, the Israeli military said it bombed Hezbollah anti-tank missile depots and other arms assets in Tyre for the second time in several days.
Footage circulated online of civil defence workers driving through Tyre on Monday and urging people to leave. “For your safety, because of the warning, evacuate immediately!” one of them shouted into a megaphone attached to a car.
Israel’s expanding evacuation warnings have made ghost towns out of much of southern Lebanon, including Tyre, and the bombing campaign has left many towns along the border in ruins.
Hezbollah carried out a string of attacks on Israeli troops within Lebanese territory and on military targets within Israel. It said it had struck a military equipment factory southeast of Acre, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
Israel wants more peace deals with Arab countries after war, says Netanyahu
Netanyahu said on Monday he hoped to reach peace deals with more Arab countries once the war against Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah was complete.
“The day after Hamas no longer controls Gaza and Hezbollah no longer sits on our northern border, we are working these days on plans to stabilise those two fronts. But the day after includes something else of utmost importance,” said Netanyahu in a speech to parliament.
“I aspire to continue the process I led a few years ago of the signing of the historic Abraham Accords, and achieve peace with more Arab countries,” he said.
Israel, under the US-brokered 2020 accords, normalised relations with four Arab countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
Since then, Israel, with US support, has sought to also include other nations, particularly Saudi Arabia. Riyadh says it will not recognise Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
“These countries, and other countries, see clearly the blows we are landing on those who attack us, the Iranian axis of evil,” said Netanyahu. “They aspire, like us, for a stable, secure and prosperous Middle East.”
Israel signs deal to expand production of laser missile defence system
Israel’s defence ministry said on Monday it had signed a 2 billion shekel ($536-million) deal with local contractors to expand production of a new laser-based missile defence system that could be operational next year.
The deal signed with state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Elbit Systems is for a high-power laser called Iron Beam that is designed to counter aerial threats, including rockets, mortar bombs, drones and cruise missiles.
It will supplement the Iron Dome system, which shoots down rockets and missiles fired at Israel, using radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats.
Eyal Zamir, the director general of Israel’s defence ministry, said the Iron Beam deal “heralds the beginning of a new era in warfare”.
Iron Beam is seen by experts as a much cheaper alternative for neutralising enemy rockets and drones than the interceptor missiles Israel currently uses.
Israeli campaign leaves Lebanese border towns in ruins
Israel’s military campaign in southern Lebanon has caused vast destruction in more than a dozen border towns and villages, reducing many of them to clusters of grey craters, according to satellite imagery provided to Reuters by Planet Labs.
Many of the towns, emptied of their residents by the bombing, had been inhabited for at least two centuries. The imagery reviewed includes towns between Kfarkela in southeastern Lebanon, south past Meiss al-Jabal, and then west past a base used by UN peacekeepers to the small village of Labbouneh.
“There are beautiful old homes, hundreds of years old. Thousands of artillery shells have hit the town, hundreds of air strikes,” said Abdulmonem Choukeir, mayor of Meiss al-Jabal, one of the villages hit by Israeli attacks.
“Who knows what will still be standing at the end?”
Reuters compared satellite images taken in October 2023 to those taken in September and October 2024. Many of the villages with striking visible damage over the last month sit atop hills overlooking Israel.
After nearly a year of exchanging fire across the border, Israel intensified its strikes on southern Lebanon and beyond over the last month. Israeli troops have made ground incursions all along the mountainous frontier with Lebanon, engaging in heavy clashes with Hezbollah fighters inside some towns.
Lebanon’s disaster risk management unit, which tracks both victims and attacks on specific towns, said the 14 towns reviewed by Reuters had been subject to a total of 3,809 attacks by Israel over the last year.
A person familiar with Israel’s military operations in Lebanon told Reuters that troops were systematically attacking towns with strategic overlook points, including Mhaibib.
At least 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israel’s strikes and more than 2,600 have been killed over the last year — the vast majority in the last month, says Lebanon’s government.
ICC prosecutor demands probe into misconduct allegations
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, has asked the ICC’s oversight mechanism to open an immediate investigation into allegations of misconduct made against him, he said on Monday.
According to the prosecutor, the investigations should cover the allegations and disinformation surrounding them.
“I shall cooperate fully with that inquiry,” he said in a post on the social media site X.
Last week, Khan denied accusations of unspecified misconduct after the court’s governing body confirmed that it had been notified of the allegation.
The Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) and the court’s governing organ it reports to, did not immediately respond to Reuters request for information on the possible opening of a formal investigation.
The IOM said in its annual report for 2024 that the alleged victim in the Khan case would not explicitly confirm the allegations in talks with the oversight body earlier this year and therefore no formal inquiry had been launched.
ICC judges are reviewing Khan’s request in May for arrest warrants against Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and Hamas leaders. DM
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