Israel-Gaza war: Hezbollah fires more projectiles at Israel despite warning – as it happened

It is approaching 6pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle East here.

Here is a recap of the latest developments:

• The head of a UN inquiry accused the Israeli military of carrying out the “extermination” of Palestinians. In a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the head of a UN Commission of Inquiry, Navi Pillay, said the scale of Palestinian civilian losses amounted to “extermination”. Israel, which does not cooperate with the inquiry and alleges an anti-Israel bias, chose the mother of a hostage to speak on its behalf and criticised the report on the grounds that it did not give due attention to hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October.

• In a report published on Wednesday, the United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) concluded that Israel’s use of heavy bombs in Gaza raised “serious concerns” under laws of war. The OHCHR provided details on six Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, which it said were emblematic of a concerning pattern, involving the suspected use of up to 2,000-pound bombs on residential buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market.

• In its reports, the OHCHR also said that Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in their Gaza Strip military campaign. “The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign,” said UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk.

• Israel’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva characterised the OHCHR analysis as “factually, legally, and methodologically flawed.” The Israeli diplomatic mission said: “Since the OHCHR has, at best, a partial factual picture, any attempt to reach legal conclusions is inherently flawed.”

• Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a fresh barrage of more than a dozen projectiles into northern Israel on Wednesday, the Israeli army said, a day after Israel warned of a “total war” with the Iran-backed militant group. “Approximately 15 projectiles were identified from Lebanon toward the area of Kiryat Shmona, several of which were intercepted by IDF (army) aerial defence array,” the military said in a statement.

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• Hezbollah said on Wednesday it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets and artillery rounds” at a barracks in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in retaliation for the “Israeli enemy attacks” on Yarun and Khiam.

• A bulk carrier sank in the Red Sea sank days after an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels which was believed to have killed one mariner on board, authorities said early on Wednesday. The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned-and-operated Tutor is the second ship sunk in the rebels’ campaign.

• Europe has a duty to host children hurt and traumatised by war in Gaza for as long as the conflict continues, Greek foreign minister George Gerapetritis has said. Gerapetritis is seeking partners in what he hopes would be a project to temporarily bring the children to the EU, and said he discussed the idea with Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa this week.

• Urgent action must be taken in the Red Sea to stop attacks on merchant shipping by Houthi rebels, leading industry groups said on Wednesday, after the sinking of a second ship. “It is deplorable that innocent seafarers are being attacked while simply performing their jobs, vital jobs which keep the world warm, fed, and clothed,” the world’s top shipping associations said in a joint statement.

• Israeli airstrikes and clashes between troops and Palestinian militants in Gaza took place on Wednesday. Witnesses and the civil defence agency in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reported Israeli bombardment in western Rafah, where medics said drone strikes and shelling killed at least seven people.

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• Israel sent a column of tanks into the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and residents reported heavy fire from tanks and warplanes but also sounds of gun battles with Hamas-led fighters.

• In another Gaza City suburb, Sheikh Radwan, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed four Palestinians, including a child, medics said.

• The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said fighters battled Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, and in some areas detonated pre-planted explosive devices against army units. Later on Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen fired rockets at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza, Reuters reported, citing the Israeli military.

• Residents told Reuters that heavy shelling and gunfire by Israeli forces had hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip. They also said Israeli tanks had moved into five neighbourhoods after midnight. Medics and Hamas media said eight Palestinians were killed in Al-Mawasi and many families fled north in panic. They did not identify the fatalities and the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

• Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 37,396 Palestinians and injured 85,523 since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Wednesday.

• A Syrian army officer was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike in the country’s south, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported, citing a military source. “The Israeli enemy carried out an aggression using drones against two military positions of our armed forces in the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa,” it reported.

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday claimed the US is withholding weapons and implied this was slowing Israel’s offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Netanyahu, in a short video, spoke directly to the camera in English as he lobbed sharp criticisms at US president Joe Biden over “bottlenecks” in arms transfers.

• The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the only pause in delivering weapons to Israel was related to a delay of certain heavy bombs since May over concerns about Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza. “We, as you know, are continuing to review one shipment that president Biden has talked about with regard to 2,000-pound bombs because of our concerns about their use in a densely populated area like Rafah,” Blinken said during a state department news conference. “That remains under review. But everything else is moving as it normally would.”

• The US news website Axios and Israeli media said that Washington had cancelled a high-level meeting with Israeli officials on Iran after Netanyahu’s comments about the US withholding weapons.

• A series of Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday resulted in the deaths of at least 17 Palestinians in two of the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps, as tanks advanced further into the southern city of Rafah, according to reports from residents and medics.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a fresh barrage of more than a dozen projectiles into northern Israel on Wednesday, the Israeli army said, a day after Israel warned of a “total war” with the Iran-backed militant group, reports Agence France-Presse (AP).

“Approximately 15 projectiles were identified from Lebanon toward the area of Kiryat Shmona, several of which were intercepted by IDF (army) aerial defence array,” the military said in a statement.

“IDF artillery struck the sources of fire,” it said, adding the incoming fire did not cause any casualties.

According to AFP, the military said its warplanes also struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Tyre and infrastructure in Khiam in Lebanon.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets and artillery rounds” at a barracks in Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel in retaliation for the “Israeli enemy attacks” on Yarun and Khiam.

Wednesday’s clash came a day after the Israeli military said it had approved operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon.

“As part of the situational assessment, operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated,” the military said in a statement.

US presidential envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel and Lebanon this week, calling for an “urgent” de-escalation on the border.

The Israel-Lebanon clashes have killed at least 473 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 92 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north, reports AFP.

Urgent action must be taken in the Red Sea to stop attacks on merchant shipping by Yemen’s Houthis, leading industry groups said on Wednesday, after the sinking of a second ship.

“It is deplorable that innocent seafarers are being attacked while simply performing their jobs, vital jobs which keep the world warm, fed, and clothed,” the world’s top shipping associations said in a joint statement, reports Reuters.

The statement added: “These attacks must stop now. We call for states with influence in the region to safeguard our innocent seafarers and for the swift de-escalation of the situation in the Red Sea.”

The Greek-owned Tutor coal carrier attacked by Houthi militants in the Red Sea last week has sunk, salvagers confirmed on Wednesday (see 08.52 BST). The vessel was struck with missiles and an explosive-laden remote-controlled boat, according to sources, reports Reuters.

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International naval forces have been deployed to provide mainly defensive support for ships still sailing through the Red Sea, but the attacks have increased significantly.

Insurance industry sources yold Reuters on Wednesday there was also mounting concern over the use of attack drone boats by the Houthis.

“They are harder to defend against and potentially more lethal as they strike the waterline,” one industry source said. “Missiles have – to date – mainly caused deck and superstructure damage [to ships].”

There have been 10 Houthi strikes so far in June compared with five in May, said Munro Anderson, head of operations at marine war risk and insurance specialist Vessel Protect, part of Pen Underwriting.

“The first successful use of an unmanned surface vessel represents a new challenge for commercial shipping within an already complex environment,” he told Reuters.

According to the news agency, insurance industry sources said that additional war risk premiums, paid when vessels sail through the Red Sea, had hovered close to 0.7% of the value of a ship in recent days from about 1% earlier this year.

They added that with a second ship sinking and the losses likely to emerge from that, rates are likely to firm up, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars of extra costs to every voyage.

Ships must divert around southern Africa, which is the best way to protect seafarers, said Stephen Cotton, general secretary with the International Transport Workers’ Federation, the leading seafarer’s union.

“We would also welcome proper escorts and the shielding of ships by naval forces, which would reduce the risks of ships being hit,” he added, reports Reuters.

The head of a UN inquiry has accused the Israeli military of carrying out the “extermination” of Palestinians, reports Reuters.

In a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the head of a UN Commission of Inquiry, Navi Pillay, said perpetrators of abuses in the conflict must be brought to account.

She repeated findings from a report published last week that both Hamas militants and Israel have committed war crimes but said that Israel alone was responsible for the most serious abuses under international law known as “crimes against humanity”.

Pillay said the scale of Palestinian civilian losses amounted to “extermination”.

“We found that the immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of an intentional strategy to cause maximum damage,” Pillay, a former UN high commissioner for human rights, told the Geneva meeting.

Israel, which does not cooperate with the inquiry and alleges an anti-Israel bias, chose the mother of a hostage (see 13.48 BST) to speak on its behalf and criticised the report on the grounds that it did not give due attention to hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October.

AFP has a report from the UN human rights council on Wednesday. AFP write:

Her voice shaking with emotion, Meirav Leshem Gonen described to the UN human rights council on Wednesday the agony of listening over the phone as Hamas militants seized her daughter on 7 October.

Her daughter, 23-year-old Romi Gonen, “was terrified, and I felt utterly helpless as I listened to her suffering”, she said. “Please help me hug my daughter again.”

Her appeal came as the top UN rights body in Geneva convened to debate a scathing report holding Israel responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in its offensive in Gaza, launched in response to the October attack.

The report by the independent Commission of Inquiry noted a “widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza”.

It also found that Palestinian militants had committed war crimes, including in connection with Hamas’s unprecedented 7 October attack and the seizing of hostages.

It highlighted in particular the plight of women caught up in the attack, decrying that “women and women’s bodies were used as victory trophies by male perpetrators”.

Israel has been vehemently critical of the report, and Leshem Gonen herself charged that it “trivialises the severity of sexual violence experienced by women in captivity.”

She said:

I stand before you today not just as a mother, but also as a voice for women who have endured unimaginable suffering, whose pain is not acknowledged.

When women’s bodies are used as political tools, when their dignity is set aside because they are not on the ’right side’, it is a badge of shame for us all.

Leshem Gonen described the agony that she and other hostages’ families feel.

Her daughter was fleeing by car from the Supernova music festival on 7 October when it was ambushed by Hamas fighters. During the attack she phoned her mother, who tried to comfort her above the din of explosions.

“She was brutally dragged by her long, beautiful hair from the car, along the road,” Leshem Gonen said, describing “hearing her helplessness and frustration without being able to help my baby”.

That was 257 days ago.

We owe all hostages still held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza to do all in our power to release them immediately.

I owe it to Romi, and so does the international community.

Reuters reports that Israel sent a column of tanks into the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and residents reported heavy fire from tanks and warplanes but also sounds of gun battles with Hamas-led fighters.

In another Gaza City suburb, Sheikh Radwan, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed four Palestinians, including a child, medics said.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said fighters battled Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, and have in some areas detonated pre-planted explosive devices against army units.

Later on Wednesday, Palestinian gunmen fired rockets at the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza, Reuters reported, citing the Israeli military.

Residents told Reuters that heavy shelling and gunfire by Israeli forces had hit the tents of displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area, on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip. They also said Israeli tanks had moved into five neighbourhoods after midnight.

According to Reuters, medics and Hamas media said eight Palestinians were killed in Al-Mawasi and many families fled north in panic. They did not identify the fatalities and the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

Residents told Reuters that Israeli army forces blew up several homes in western Rafah, which had sheltered over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people before last month, when Israel began its ground offensive and forced most of the population to head northwards. UN and Palestinian figures put those who remained at under 100,000 people.

“Another night of horror in Rafah. They opened fire from planes, drones and tanks on the western areas to cover for their invasion,” one Rafah resident, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

“Bullets and shells landed in the Mawasi area near where people slept, killing and wounding many,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

According to Reuters, an Israeli commander briefing military correspondents in Rafah on Tuesday named two more locations there – Shaboura and Tel Al-Sultan – where the army planned to take on Hamas fighters.

The Israeli military remained in control of the borderline between Rafah and Egypt.

Reuters reports that footage circulated on social media showed the Rafah crossing was destroyed, buildings burnt, and Israeli tanks positioned there with the flag of Israel flying over some places. The Israeli military said aid into Gaza had not been impeded by the damage.

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group that has fought alongside Hamas, said its militants were battling troops amid Israeli shelling of western Rafah, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

According to AFP, witnesses reported seeing Israeli military vehicles enter the city’s Saudi neighbourhood, followed by night-time gun battles.

AFP reports that parts of central Gaza also saw fighting overnight, with witnesses reporting artillery shelling and heavy gunfire in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood.

A Syrian army officer was killed on Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike in the country’s south, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported, citing a military source.

“The Israeli enemy carried out an aggression using drones against two military positions of our armed forces in the provinces of Quneitra and Daraa,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports, citing the Syrian news agency. Sana adds that the attack resulted in the death of the officer and material damage.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the US news website Axios and Israeli media said that Washington has cancelled a high-level meeting with Israeli officials on Iran after Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments about the US withholding weapons (see 09.06 BST).

Netanyahu is due to address the US Congress next month.