| | The White House canceled a key strategic meeting on Iran with senior Israeli officials after PM Netanyahu accused the Biden administration of delaying arm shipments to Israel. Israel's state comptroller said the PM's office asked him to postpone a probe into its conduct surrounding October 7. Some 25 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel. The UN said it is unable to distribute aid from the Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza because of lawlessness and panic among Gazan residents.
Here's what you need to know 257 days into the war | | |
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| | | | What happened today | | |  | | | ■ LEBANON AND SYRIA: Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address that "an invasion of the Galilee [in Israel's north] remains on the table if the fighting escalates." He added that "if Cyprus helps Israel, it will become part of the war."
- The IDF said more than 10 rockets were launched from Lebanon at Israel's Upper Galilee region, two anti-tank missiles were fired at the northern city of Metula, and 15 rockets were fired at the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona. The IDF said it attacked Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and launch sites.
- IDF chief Herzl Halevi said that the military is aware of which asset Hezbollah used to film footage of Haifa's port after the group released a video on Tuesday, claiming to have used a drone for the task."We are preparing and building solutions to deal with such capabilities as well as other capacities that, in time, will be deployed when needed," Halevi said
- Reports in Lebanon said Israel struck in the country's south. Hezbollah later said three of its members were killed.
- Syrian state media reported that a Syrian military officer was killed in an Israeli drone strike on its southern Quneitra and Daraa provinces, citing a military source.
■ U.S.-ISRAEL: The White House canceled a key strategic meeting on Iran's nuclear capacities with senior Israeli officials following a video released by PM Netanyahu on Tuesday, in which he publicly criticized the Biden administration and accused the U.S. of delaying arms shipments to Israel, saying the delay was "inconceivable."
- Biden's special Mideast envoy, Amos Hochstein, told Netanyahu that he had "exaggerated" and caused anger at the top levels of the administration, Israeli news website Walla reported. A senior Israeli official told Haaretz that Netanyahu's video damaged weeks of coordination efforts, and that U.S. officials described his conduct as "ungratefulness."
- On Wednesday, PM Netanyahu said that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew told him the delayed shipments were "in the process of being delivered to Israel."
"Netanyahu is playing politics. That's the only thing he knows how to do. The video is just a prequel to his visit to Washington, where he invited himself in cahoots with the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives to address a joint session of Congress on July 24. He is doing so to hurt Biden and turn Israel into a larger partisan wedge issue ahead of the U.S. presidential election on November 5" – Alon Pinkas
■ GAZA: Israeli tanks supported by the air force pushed deeper into the western part of the city of Rafah, killing eight people, Gaza residents and Palestinian medics told Reuters.
- The UN Environment Programme estimated that the war in Gaza has destroyed over 60 percent of its water infrastructure, creating some 40 million tonnes of building debris, which contains toxic materials.
- The UN said it has been unable to distribute aid in Gaza from the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing because of lawlessness and panic among hungry people in the area, despite Israel's daytime pause in military activity.
- Aid organizations operating in Gaza said the U.S.-built pier for aid distribution has failed, and it is likely to be dismantled weeks earlier than expected, the New York Times reported.
- According to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, at least 37,396 Palestinians have been killed and 85,523 wounded since the start of the war.
■ ISRAEL: PM Netanyahu publicly reprimanded far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after his demand to join the Gaza war cabinet, saying that he has "to prove he has not leaked state secrets or private conversations." In response, Ben-Gvir called for a bill that would require all cabinet members to take a lie detector test to prove they were not leakers.
- National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz accused PM Netanyahu of "damaging strategic relations with the U.S. for political reasons and creating simulated crises" in a speech at Tel Aviv University, adding that the premier "spends his nights in political discussions, not in preparing for an escalation in the north or in trying to pressure the region's leaders to return our hostages."
- Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said "The idea of destroying Hamas is simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public…Hamas is an idea, Hamas is a political party…whoever thinks we can eliminate Hamas is mistaken," in an interview with Israel's Channel 13 News.
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